The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Flight, sentence 100
The armed men formed themselves in battle array, waiting for commands; the old men and the married women hastened to their homes, ashamed of their weakness; the children, too, sought their own firesides, for night was approaching.
Who acts: armed men, children · What happens: form, wait, hasten, seek, approach · To what, where: men, battle array, married women, homes, own firesides
This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Flight. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (armed men, children), 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 | 3 men | det |
| 2 | armed | armed | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 men | amod |
| 3 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 formed | nsubj |
| 4 | formed | form | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | themselves | themselves | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes | 4 formed | obj |
| 6 | in | in | ADP | _ | 8 array | case |
| 7 | battle | battle | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 array | compound |
| 8 | array | array | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 formed | obl |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 waiting | punct |
| 10 | waiting | wait | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 4 formed | advcl |
| 11 | for | for | ADP | _ | 12 commands | case |
| 12 | commands | command | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 waiting | obl |
| 13 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 16 men | punct |
| 14 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 16 men | det |
| 15 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 16 men | amod |
| 16 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 formed | obl |
| 17 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 20 women | cc |
| 18 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 20 women | det |
| 19 | married | married | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 20 women | amod |
| 20 | women | woman | NOUN | Number=Plur | 16 men | conj |
| 21 | hastened | hasten | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 20 women | acl |
| 22 | to | to | ADP | _ | 24 homes | case |
| 23 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 24 homes | nmod:poss |
| 24 | homes | home | NOUN | Number=Plur | 21 hastened | obl |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 ashamed | punct |
| 26 | ashamed | ashamed | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 16 men | conj |
| 27 | of | of | ADP | _ | 29 weakness | case |
| 28 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 29 weakness | nmod:poss |
| 29 | weakness | weakness | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 ashamed | obl |
| 30 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 32 children | punct |
| 31 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 32 children | det |
| 32 | children | child | NOUN | Number=Plur | 36 sought | nsubj |
| 33 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 34 too | punct |
| 34 | too | too | ADV | _ | 36 sought | advmod |
| 35 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 34 too | punct |
| 36 | sought | seek | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 formed | parataxis |
| 37 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 39 firesides | nmod:poss |
| 38 | own | own | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 39 firesides | amod |
| 39 | firesides | fireside | NOUN | Number=Plur | 36 sought | obj |
| 40 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 44 approaching | punct |
| 41 | for | for | SCONJ | _ | 44 approaching | mark |
| 42 | night | night | NOUN | Number=Sing | 44 approaching | obl:unmarked |
| 43 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 44 approaching | aux |
| 44 | approaching | approach | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 36 sought | advcl |
| 45 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 formed | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | form | past | the armed men | men = man | battle array | the old men and the married women obl | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location themselves=Theme | ||
| 2 | wait | gerund | the armed men not said here | for commands | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 3 | hasten | participle | the married women not said here | men's homes | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to home=Destination | ||||
| 4 | seek | past | the children | men's own firesides | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fireside=Theme | ||||
| 5 | approach | past · progressive | the children not said here | night | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
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/pg66819/36/100/