The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Slave Boy, sentence 97
Kullervo cut through the upper crust of the cake, he cut through the wheaten layer at the top; but when the knife struck the stone in the centre it broke short off at the hilt and only the handle remained in his grasp.
Who acts: Kullervo, knife · What happens: cut, strike, break, remain, grasp · To what, where: wheaten layer, stone, centre, hilt
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 (Kullervo, knife), 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 | Kullervo | Kullervo | PROPN | Number=Sing | 2 cut | nsubj |
| 2 | cut | cut | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | through | through | ADP | _ | 6 crust | case |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 crust | det |
| 5 | upper | upper | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 crust | amod |
| 6 | crust | crust | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 cut | obl |
| 7 | of | of | ADP | _ | 9 cake | case |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 9 cake | det |
| 9 | cake | cake | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 crust | nmod |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 cut | punct |
| 11 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 12 cut | nsubj |
| 12 | cut | cut | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 cut | parataxis |
| 13 | through | through | ADP | _ | 16 layer | case |
| 14 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 16 layer | det |
| 15 | wheaten | wheaten | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 16 layer | amod |
| 16 | layer | layer | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 cut | obl |
| 17 | at | at | ADP | _ | 19 top | case |
| 18 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 19 top | det |
| 19 | top | top | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 cut | obl |
| 20 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 32 broke | punct |
| 21 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 32 broke | cc |
| 22 | when | when | SCONJ | _ | 25 struck | mark |
| 23 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 24 knife | det |
| 24 | knife | knife | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 struck | nsubj |
| 25 | struck | strike | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 32 broke | advcl |
| 26 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 27 stone | det |
| 27 | stone | stone | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 struck | obj |
| 28 | in | in | ADP | _ | 30 centre | case |
| 29 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 30 centre | det |
| 30 | centre | centre | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 struck | obl |
| 31 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 32 broke | nsubj |
| 32 | broke | break | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 cut | parataxis |
| 33 | short | short | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 32 broke | xcomp |
| 34 | off | off | ADP | _ | 33 short | compound:prt |
| 35 | at | at | ADP | _ | 37 hilt | case |
| 36 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 37 hilt | det |
| 37 | hilt | hilt | NOUN | Number=Sing | 42 remained | obl |
| 38 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 41 handle | cc |
| 39 | only | only | ADV | _ | 41 handle | advmod |
| 40 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 41 handle | det |
| 41 | handle | handle | NOUN | Number=Sing | 37 hilt | conj |
| 42 | remained | remain | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 32 broke | parataxis |
| 43 | in | in | ADP | _ | 45 grasp | case |
| 44 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 45 grasp | nmod:poss |
| 45 | grasp | grasp | NOUN | Number=Sing | 42 remained | obl |
| 46 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 cut | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | cut | past | Kullervo | through the upper crust of the cake | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent through crust=Patient | ||||
| 2 | cut | past | Kullervo | the wheaten layer | at the top | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent at top=Patient | |||
| 3 | strike | past | the knife | the stone | the centre | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stone=Patient | |||
| 4 | break | past | knife | short property | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient | ||||
| 5 | remain | past | the hilt and the handle | in Kullervo's grasp | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at hilt=Location | ||||
| 6 | grasp | Kullervo | nom grasp «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |
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/pg66819/29/97/