The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Recipe, sentence 24

He could scarcely say a word in answer; he could hardly lift his eyes; his hands hung as though palsied at his side; his feet were rooted to the floor.

Who acts: Ilmarinen, hands · What happens: say, lift, hang, palsy, root · To what, where: word, answer, eyes, side, feet · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North» by James Baldwin, The Recipe. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Ilmarinen, hands), 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	4 say	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 say	aux
3	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	_	4 say	advmod
4	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 word	det
6	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 say	obj
7	in	in	ADP	_	8 answer	case
8	answer	answer	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 word	nmod
9	;	;	PUNCT	_	13 lift	punct
10	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 lift	nsubj
11	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	13 lift	aux
12	hardly	hardly	ADV	_	13 lift	advmod
13	lift	lift	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 say	conj
14	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 eyes	nmod:poss
15	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 lift	obj
16	;	;	PUNCT	_	19 hung	punct
17	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	18 hands	nmod:poss
18	hands	hand	NOUN	Number=Plur	19 hung	nsubj
19	hung	hang	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 say	parataxis
20	as	as	ADV	_	22 palsied	advmod
21	though	though	ADV	_	22 palsied	advmod
22	palsied	palsy	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	19 hung	xcomp
23	at	at	ADP	_	25 side	case
24	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	25 side	nmod:poss
25	side	side	NOUN	Number=Sing	22 palsied	obl
26	;	;	PUNCT	_	30 rooted	punct
27	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	28 feet	nmod:poss
28	feet	foot	NOUN	Number=Plur	30 rooted	nsubj:pass
29	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	30 rooted	aux:pass
30	rooted	root	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	19 hung	conj
31	to	to	ADP	_	33 floor	case
32	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	33 floor	det
33	floor	floor	NOUN	Number=Sing	30 rooted	obl
34	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 say	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	could	Ilmarinen	a word	answer	scarcely property	vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP PP.manner»: agent=Agent word=Theme in answer=Manner
2	lift	could	Ilmarinen	Ilmarinen's eyes		hardly property	vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eye=Theme
3	hang	past	Ilmarinen's hands				tree rules
4	palsy	participle	Ilmarinen's hands not said here		Ilmarinen's side	though property	tree rules
5	root	past · passive		Ilmarinen's feet		to the floor	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient

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/pg66819/9/24/

🌲 The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Recipe, sentence 24

The tree

Pragmatics

The Sampo: A Wonder Tale of the Old North, The Recipe, sentence 24