The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Slave Boy, sentence 140
And as he sang, behold, a wonderful thing occurred: all the wolves so lately feasting were changed into sleek, fat yearlings, and all the bears so lately gorging themselves became fine milk cows with mild, soft eyes and pendent udders.
Who acts: boy, wonderful thing, feasting, bears · What happens: sing, occur, feast, change, gorge, become · To what, where: wolves, bears, fine milk cows
This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Slave Boy. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy, wonderful thing, feasting, bears), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.
Mova's own parse. This tree may be wrong.
The tree
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | And | and | CCONJ | _ | 11 occurred | cc |
| 2 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 4 sang | mark |
| 3 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 sang | nsubj |
| 4 | sang | sing | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 11 occurred | advcl |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 6 behold | punct |
| 6 | behold | behold | INTJ | _ | 4 sang | discourse |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 sang | punct |
| 8 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 10 thing | det |
| 9 | wonderful | wonderful | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 10 thing | amod |
| 10 | thing | thing | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 occurred | nsubj |
| 11 | occurred | occur | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 12 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 11 occurred | punct |
| 13 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 15 wolves | det:predet |
| 14 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 wolves | det |
| 15 | wolves | wolf | NOUN | Number=Plur | 11 occurred | obj |
| 16 | so | so | ADV | _ | 18 feasting | advmod |
| 17 | lately | lately | ADV | _ | 18 feasting | advmod |
| 18 | feasting | feast | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 20 changed | csubj:pass |
| 19 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 20 changed | aux:pass |
| 20 | changed | change | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 11 occurred | parataxis |
| 21 | into | into | ADP | _ | 25 yearlings | case |
| 22 | sleek | sleek | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 25 yearlings | amod |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 22 sleek | punct |
| 24 | fat | fat | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 25 yearlings | amod |
| 25 | yearlings | yearling | NOUN | Number=Plur | 20 changed | obl |
| 26 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 33 gorging | punct |
| 27 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 33 gorging | cc |
| 28 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 30 bears | det:predet |
| 29 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 30 bears | det |
| 30 | bears | bear | NOUN | Number=Plur | 33 gorging | nsubj |
| 31 | so | so | ADV | _ | 33 gorging | advmod |
| 32 | lately | lately | ADV | _ | 33 gorging | advmod |
| 33 | gorging | gorge | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 35 became | nsubj |
| 34 | themselves | themselves | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes | 33 gorging | obj |
| 35 | became | become | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 11 occurred | parataxis |
| 36 | fine | fine | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 38 cows | amod |
| 37 | milk | milk | NOUN | Number=Sing | 38 cows | compound |
| 38 | cows | cow | NOUN | Number=Plur | 35 became | xcomp |
| 39 | with | with | ADP | _ | 43 eyes | case |
| 40 | mild | mild | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 43 eyes | amod |
| 41 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 40 mild | punct |
| 42 | soft | soft | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 43 eyes | amod |
| 43 | eyes | eye | NOUN | Number=Plur | 38 cows | nmod |
| 44 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 46 udders | cc |
| 45 | pendent | pendent | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 46 udders | amod |
| 46 | udders | udder | NOUN | Number=Plur | 43 eyes | conj |
| 47 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 11 occurred | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | sing speech: express | past | boy | vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location | |||||
| 2 | occur | past | a wonderful thing | all wolves | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | feast | gerund | lately property | vn dine-39.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 4 | change | past · passive | feasting | into sleek fat yearlings result | vn turn-26.6.1-1 «NP.patient V PP.result»: into yearling=Result | ||||
| 5 | gorge | gerund | all bears | bears = bear | lately property | tree rules | |||
| 6 | become | past | fine milk cows with mild soft eyes and pendent udders | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.
Text: «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, Project Gutenberg book 66819 (public domain in the USA). Tree: Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), the chapter read in order.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66819/29/140/