The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Graybeard and His Son, sentence 112
Every now and then, as he went down the slope, he paused to try the healing mixture on splintered rocks and broken bowlders; and he smiled as he saw the rough stones knit themselves together and the gaping fissures close up and disappear.
Who acts: pot, rough stones, gaping fissures · What happens: go down, pause, try, heal, splinter, smile · To what, where: slope, healing mixture, splintered rocks, stones · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Graybeard and His Son. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (pot, rough stones, gaping fissures), 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 | Every | every | DET | PronType=Tot | 8 went | det |
| 2 | now | now | ADV | PronType=Dem | 8 went | advmod |
| 3 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 4 then | cc |
| 4 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 8 went | advmod |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 8 went | punct |
| 6 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 8 went | mark |
| 7 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 8 went | nsubj |
| 8 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 9 | down | down | ADP | _ | 11 slope | case |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 slope | det |
| 11 | slope | slope | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 went | obl |
| 12 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 paused | punct |
| 13 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 14 paused | nsubj |
| 14 | paused | pause | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 went | conj |
| 15 | to | to | PART | _ | 16 try | mark |
| 16 | try | try | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 14 paused | xcomp |
| 17 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 19 mixture | det |
| 18 | healing | heal | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 19 mixture | amod |
| 19 | mixture | mixture | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 try | obj |
| 20 | on | on | ADP | _ | 22 rocks | case |
| 21 | splintered | splinter | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 22 rocks | amod |
| 22 | rocks | rock | NOUN | Number=Plur | 16 try | obl |
| 23 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 25 bowlders | cc |
| 24 | broken | broken | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 25 bowlders | amod |
| 25 | bowlders | bowlder | NOUN | Number=Plur | 22 rocks | conj |
| 26 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 29 smiled | punct |
| 27 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 29 smiled | cc |
| 28 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 29 smiled | nsubj |
| 29 | smiled | smile | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 went | conj |
| 30 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 32 saw | mark |
| 31 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 32 saw | nsubj |
| 32 | saw | see | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 29 smiled | ccomp |
| 33 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 35 stones | det |
| 34 | rough | rough | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 35 stones | amod |
| 35 | stones | stone | NOUN | Number=Plur | 36 knit | nsubj |
| 36 | knit | knit | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 32 saw | ccomp |
| 37 | themselves | themselves | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes | 36 knit | obj |
| 38 | together | together | ADV | _ | 36 knit | advmod |
| 39 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 43 close | cc |
| 40 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 42 fissures | det |
| 41 | gaping | gaping | NOUN | Number=Sing | 42 fissures | compound |
| 42 | fissures | fissure | NOUN | Number=Plur | 43 close | nsubj |
| 43 | close | close | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 36 knit | conj |
| 44 | up | up | ADP | _ | 43 close | compound:prt |
| 45 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 46 disappear | cc |
| 46 | disappear | disappear | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 43 close | conj |
| 47 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 went | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | go down | past | pot | the slope | now; then | vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.patient V NP.extent PP.source PP.goal»: agent=Patient slope=Extent | |||
| 2 | pause | past | pot | tree rules | |||||
| 3 | try | to-infinitive | pot not said here | the healing mixture | splintered rocks and broken bowlders | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mixture=Eventuality | |||
| 4 | heal | gerund | vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient | ||||||
| 5 | splinter | participle | vn break-45.1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient | ||||||
| 6 | smile | past | pot | vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 7 | see | past | pot | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | |||||
| 8 | knit | present | the rough stones | stones = stone | together property | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent themselves=Product | |||
| 9 | close up | present | the gaping fissures | vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient | |||||
| 10 | disappear | infinitive | the gaping fissures not said here | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «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/pg66819/4/112/