The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth, The Descent of the Sun., sentence 41

It was a night as still as that which long ago Medea chose on which to work her spells: nothing moved save the twinkling stars; all below was plunged in sleep, every tree a picture, every leaf seemed carved in stone: only, every now and then, a flying fox burst screeching from a branch.

Who acts: breath, Medea, nothing, flying fox · What happens: be, choose, work, move, save, plunge · To what, where: night, spells, twinkling stars, all, tree, stone

This is a sentence of «The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown, The Descent of the Sun.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (breath, Medea, nothing, flying fox), 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	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 night	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 night	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 night	det
4	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	as	as	ADV	_	6 still	advmod
6	still	still	ADV	_	4 night	advmod
7	as	as	ADP	_	8 that	case
8	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	6 still	obl
9	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	13 chose	obj
10	long	long	ADV	Degree=Pos	11 ago	advmod
11	ago	ago	ADV	_	13 chose	advmod
12	Medea	Medea	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 chose	nsubj
13	chose	choose	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 night	conj
14	on	on	ADP	_	15 which	case
15	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	17 work	obl
16	to	to	PART	_	17 work	mark
17	work	work	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	13 chose	ccomp
18	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	19 spells	nmod:poss
19	spells	spell	NOUN	Number=Plur	17 work	obj
20	:	:	PUNCT	_	22 moved	punct
21	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	22 moved	nsubj
22	moved	move	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	19 spells	acl:relcl
23	save	save	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	22 moved	xcomp
24	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	26 stars	det
25	twinkling	twinkling	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 stars	compound
26	stars	star	NOUN	Number=Plur	23 save	obj
27	;	;	PUNCT	_	31 plunged	punct
28	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	31 plunged	nsubj:pass
29	below	below	ADV	_	28 all	advmod
30	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	31 plunged	aux:pass
31	plunged	plunge	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 night	conj
32	in	in	ADP	_	33 sleep	case
33	sleep	sleep	NOUN	Number=Sing	31 plunged	obl
34	,	,	PUNCT	_	36 tree	punct
35	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	36 tree	det
36	tree	tree	NOUN	Number=Sing	43 carved	nsubj:pass
37	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	38 picture	det
38	picture	picture	NOUN	Number=Sing	43 carved	nsubj:pass
39	,	,	PUNCT	_	41 leaf	punct
40	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	41 leaf	det
41	leaf	leaf	NOUN	Number=Sing	38 picture	conj
42	seemed	seem	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	43 carved	aux:pass
43	carved	carve	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	31 plunged	parataxis
44	in	in	ADP	_	45 stone	case
45	stone	stone	NOUN	Number=Sing	43 carved	obl
46	:	:	PUNCT	_	47 only	punct
47	only	only	ADV	_	43 carved	advmod
48	,	,	PUNCT	_	50 now	punct
49	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	50 now	det
50	now	now	ADV	PronType=Dem	31 plunged	advmod
51	and	and	CCONJ	_	52 then	cc
52	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	50 now	conj
53	,	,	PUNCT	_	57 burst	punct
54	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	56 fox	det
55	flying	fly	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	56 fox	amod
56	fox	fox	NOUN	Number=Sing	57 burst	nsubj
57	burst	burst	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	31 plunged	conj
58	screeching	screech	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	57 burst	xcomp
59	from	from	ADP	_	61 branch	case
60	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	61 branch	det
61	branch	branch	NOUN	Number=Sing	58 screeching	obl
62	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 night	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	breath	a night		still		tree rules
2	choose	past	Medea	a night			ago property	tree rules
3	work	to-infinitive	Medea not said here	Medea's spells			which obl	vn knead-26.5 «NP V NP.material»: agent=Agent spell=Material
4	move	past	nothing	Medea's spells not said here				tree rules
5	save	infinitive	nothing not said here	the twinkling stars				vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent star=Theme
6	plunge	past · passive		all		now; then	in sleep	vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute NP.extent PP.source PP.goal»: subject=Extent in sleep=Attribute
7	carve	past · passive		every tree	stone		a picture and every leaf nsubj:pass	vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme in stone=Destination
8	fly	gerund						vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
9	burst	past	a flying fox					tree rules
10	screech	gerund	a flying fox not said here		a branch			vn animal_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent
11	spell		Medea					nom spell «state transitive»: poss=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 descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown, Project Gutenberg book 68641 (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/pg68641/1/41/

🌲 The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth, The Descent of the Sun., sentence 41

The tree

Pragmatics

The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth, The Descent of the Sun., sentence 41