The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Fate of the Sampo, sentence 25
Like a dark stormcloud in the depth of winter, obscuring the sky and overshadowing the earth, she hovered midway between the blue heavens and the boundless sea, eagerly looking for the prey which had wellnigh escaped her.
Who acts: Mistress, prey, wellnigh · What happens: obscure, overshadow, hover, look, have, escape · To what, where: sky, earth, midway, Mistress
This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Fate of the Sampo. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Mistress, prey, wellnigh), 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 | Like | like | ADP | _ | 4 stormcloud | case |
| 2 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 4 stormcloud | det |
| 3 | dark | dark | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 stormcloud | amod |
| 4 | stormcloud | stormcloud | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 hovered | obl |
| 5 | in | in | ADP | _ | 7 depth | case |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 depth | det |
| 7 | depth | depth | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 stormcloud | nmod |
| 8 | of | of | ADP | _ | 9 winter | case |
| 9 | winter | winter | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 depth | nmod |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 11 obscuring | punct |
| 11 | obscuring | obscure | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 4 stormcloud | appos |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 13 sky | det |
| 13 | sky | sky | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 obscuring | obj |
| 14 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 15 overshadowing | cc |
| 15 | overshadowing | overshadow | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 11 obscuring | conj |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 earth | det |
| 17 | earth | earth | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 overshadowing | obj |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 stormcloud | punct |
| 19 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 20 hovered | nsubj |
| 20 | hovered | hover | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 21 | midway | midway | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 hovered | obj |
| 22 | between | between | ADP | _ | 25 heavens | case |
| 23 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 25 heavens | det |
| 24 | blue | blue | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 25 heavens | amod |
| 25 | heavens | heaven | NOUN | Number=Plur | 21 midway | nmod |
| 26 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 29 sea | cc |
| 27 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 29 sea | det |
| 28 | boundless | boundless | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 29 sea | amod |
| 29 | sea | sea | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 midway | conj |
| 30 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 32 looking | punct |
| 31 | eagerly | eagerly | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 32 looking | compound |
| 32 | looking | look | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 20 hovered | advcl |
| 33 | for | for | ADP | _ | 35 prey | case |
| 34 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 35 prey | det |
| 35 | prey | prey | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 looking | obl |
| 36 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 37 had | nsubj |
| 37 | had | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 35 prey | acl:relcl |
| 38 | wellnigh | wellnigh | NOUN | Number=Sing | 39 escaped | nsubj |
| 39 | escaped | escape | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 37 had | ccomp |
| 40 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 39 escaped | obj |
| 41 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 20 hovered | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | obscure | gerund | the sky | vn remedy-45.7 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent sky=Patient | |||||
| 2 | overshadow | gerund | the earth | vn remedy-45.7 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent earth=Patient | |||||
| 3 | hover | past | Mistress | midway and the boundless sea | like a dark stormcloud in the depth of winter; between the blue heavens | vn modes_of_being_with_motion-47.3 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location midway=Theme | |||
| 4 | look | gerund | Mistress not said here | for the prey | vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent for prey=Theme | ||||
| 5 | have | past | the prey | tree rules | |||||
| 6 | escape | past | wellnigh | Mistress | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme she=Initial_Location |
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/pg66819/38/25/