The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Kantele, sentence 30
He drew his fish-knife from his belt, he reached downward with his long arms, he slashed furiously this way and that; but nothing did he cut save the yielding water.
Who acts: Ahti, nothing · What happens: draw, reach, slash, do, cut, save · To what, where: fish knife, belt, way, yielding water
This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Kantele. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Ahti, nothing), 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 | He | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 drew | nsubj |
| 2 | drew | draw | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 6 knife | nmod:poss |
| 4 | fish | fish | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 knife | compound |
| 5 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 4 fish | punct |
| 6 | knife | knife | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 drew | obj |
| 7 | from | from | ADP | _ | 9 belt | case |
| 8 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 9 belt | nmod:poss |
| 9 | belt | belt | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 drew | obl |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 reached | punct |
| 11 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 12 reached | nsubj |
| 12 | reached | reach | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 drew | conj |
| 13 | downward | downward | ADV | _ | 12 reached | advmod |
| 14 | with | with | ADP | _ | 17 arms | case |
| 15 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 17 arms | nmod:poss |
| 16 | long | long | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 17 arms | amod |
| 17 | arms | arm | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 reached | obl |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 slashed | punct |
| 19 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 20 slashed | nsubj |
| 20 | slashed | slash | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 drew | conj |
| 21 | furiously | furiously | ADV | _ | 20 slashed | advmod |
| 22 | this | this | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 23 way | det |
| 23 | way | way | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 slashed | obl:unmarked |
| 24 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 25 that | cc |
| 25 | that | that | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 23 way | conj |
| 26 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 29 did | punct |
| 27 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 29 did | cc |
| 28 | nothing | nothing | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Neg | 29 did | nsubj |
| 29 | did | do | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 drew | conj |
| 30 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 31 cut | nsubj |
| 31 | cut | cut | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 29 did | parataxis |
| 32 | save | save | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 31 cut | xcomp |
| 33 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 35 water | det |
| 34 | yielding | yield | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 35 water | amod |
| 35 | water | water | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 save | obj |
| 36 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 drew | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | draw | past | Ahti | Ahti's fish knife | Ahti's belt | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.initial_location»: agent=Agent knife=Theme from belt=Initial_Location | |||
| 2 | reach | past | Ahti | with Ahti's long arms; downward property | vn body_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 3 | slash | past | Ahti | this way that | furiously property | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient | |||
| 4 | do | past | nothing | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 5 | cut | past | Ahti | tree rules | |||||
| 6 | save | infinitive | Ahti not said here | the yielding water | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent water=Theme | ||||
| 7 | yield | gerund | vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V»: 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/pg66819/34/30/