The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Golden Maiden, sentence 60
Often in fitful dreams he reached his hand out in the darkness thinking to touch hers, but grasping nothing, seizing only empty air.
Who acts: Beauty, darkness · What happens: reach out, think, touch, grasp, seize · To what, where: hand, fitful dreams, friend, nothing, empty air
This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Golden Maiden. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Beauty, darkness), 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 | Often | often | ADV | _ | 6 reached | advmod |
| 2 | in | in | ADP | _ | 4 dreams | case |
| 3 | fitful | fitful | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 dreams | amod |
| 4 | dreams | dream | NOUN | Number=Plur | 6 reached | obl |
| 5 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 6 reached | nsubj |
| 6 | reached | reach | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 7 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 8 hand | nmod:poss |
| 8 | hand | hand | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 reached | obj |
| 9 | out | out | ADP | _ | 6 reached | compound:prt |
| 10 | in | in | ADP | _ | 12 darkness | case |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 darkness | det |
| 12 | darkness | darkness | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 reached | obl |
| 13 | thinking | think | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 12 darkness | acl |
| 14 | to | to | PART | _ | 15 touch | mark |
| 15 | touch | touch | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 13 thinking | xcomp |
| 16 | hers | her | PRON | Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 15 touch | obj |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 grasping | punct |
| 18 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 19 grasping | cc |
| 19 | grasping | grasp | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 6 reached | advcl |
| 20 | nothing | nothing | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Neg | 19 grasping | obj |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 22 seizing | punct |
| 22 | seizing | seize | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 19 grasping | conj |
| 23 | only | only | ADV | _ | 25 air | advmod |
| 24 | empty | empty | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 25 air | amod |
| 25 | air | air | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 seizing | obl |
| 26 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 6 reached | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | reach out | past | Beauty | Beauty's hand | fitful dreams | in the darkness; often property | vn body_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent hand=Theme | ||
| 2 | think speech: other | gerund | the darkness not said here | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | |||||
| 3 | touch | to-infinitive | the darkness not said here | friend | vn contiguous_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme her=Co-Theme | ||||
| 4 | grasp | gerund | Beauty not said here | nothing | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer nothing=Stimulus | ||||
| 5 | seize | gerund | Beauty not said here | empty air | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=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/pg66819/31/60/