The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Slave Boy, sentence 45
The broad-horned oxen crowded themselves out into the road and walked briskly but sedately down the well-worn pathway towards their accustomed pasture, the mild-eyed milk cows followed, and the calves and yearlings hurried impatiently to the front.
Who acts: horned oxen, eyed milk cows, calves · What happens: crowd out, walk, wear, follow, hurry · To what, where: oxen, road, worn pathway, front
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 (horned oxen, eyed milk cows, calves), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 oxen | det |
| 2 | broad | broad | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 horned | amod |
| 3 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 2 broad | punct |
| 4 | horned | horned | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 oxen | amod |
| 5 | oxen | ox | NOUN | Number=Plur | 6 crowded | nsubj |
| 6 | crowded | crowd | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 7 | themselves | themselves | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes | 6 crowded | obj |
| 8 | out | out | ADP | _ | 6 crowded | compound:prt |
| 9 | into | into | ADP | _ | 11 road | case |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 road | det |
| 11 | road | road | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 crowded | obl |
| 12 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 13 walked | cc |
| 13 | walked | walk | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 crowded | conj |
| 14 | briskly | briskly | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 13 walked | xcomp |
| 15 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 22 pathway | cc |
| 16 | sedately | sedately | ADV | _ | 22 pathway | advmod |
| 17 | down | down | ADP | _ | 22 pathway | case |
| 18 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 22 pathway | det |
| 19 | well | well | ADV | Degree=Pos | 21 worn | advmod |
| 20 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 19 well | punct |
| 21 | worn | wear | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 22 pathway | amod |
| 22 | pathway | pathway | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 briskly | conj |
| 23 | towards | towards | ADP | _ | 26 pasture | case |
| 24 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 26 pasture | nmod:poss |
| 25 | accustomed | accustomed | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 26 pasture | amod |
| 26 | pasture | pasture | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 pathway | nmod |
| 27 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 34 followed | punct |
| 28 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 33 cows | det |
| 29 | mild | mild | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 31 eyed | amod |
| 30 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 29 mild | punct |
| 31 | eyed | eyed | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 33 cows | amod |
| 32 | milk | milk | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 cows | compound |
| 33 | cows | cow | NOUN | Number=Plur | 34 followed | nsubj |
| 34 | followed | follow | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 22 pathway | acl:relcl |
| 35 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 41 hurried | punct |
| 36 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 41 hurried | cc |
| 37 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 38 calves | det |
| 38 | calves | calf | NOUN | Number=Plur | 41 hurried | nsubj |
| 39 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 40 yearlings | cc |
| 40 | yearlings | yearling | NOUN | Number=Plur | 38 calves | conj |
| 41 | hurried | hurry | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 crowded | parataxis |
| 42 | impatiently | impatiently | ADV | _ | 41 hurried | advmod |
| 43 | to | to | ADP | _ | 45 front | case |
| 44 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 45 front | det |
| 45 | front | front | NOUN | Number=Sing | 41 hurried | obl |
| 46 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 6 crowded | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | crowd out | past | the horned oxen | oxen = ox | the road | vn spray-9.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent themselves=Theme into road=Destination | |||
| 2 | walk | past | the horned oxen not said here | briskly property | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 3 | wear | participle | well property | vn wipe_manner-10.4.1-1 «NP V PP-Conative»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 4 | follow | past | the eyed milk cows | the worn pathway towards oxen's accustomed pasture not said here | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pathway=Theme | ||||
| 5 | hurry | past | the calves and yearlings | the front | impatiently property | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to front=Destination |
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/pg66819/29/45/