The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth, A Sleep and a Dream., part 4, sentence 100
And as he gazed, he saw, how over it there crawled swiftly living things with pointed tails, of the colour of sand, which entered the desert by the holes, and issued from them, and at length stood still, and became invisible, save that their tails never rested, and their bright eyes stood out of the sand to watch.
Who acts: surface, quarter, colour, tails, bright eyes · What happens: gaze, see, crawl, point, enter, issue · To what, where: living things, desert, length, sand
This is a sentence of «The descent of the sun: A cycle of birth» by Unknown, A Sleep and a Dream., part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (surface, quarter, colour, tails), 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 | And | and | CCONJ | _ | 7 saw | cc |
| 2 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 4 gazed | mark |
| 3 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 gazed | nsubj |
| 4 | gazed | gaze | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 saw | advcl |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 gazed | punct |
| 6 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 7 saw | nsubj |
| 7 | saw | see | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 crawled | punct |
| 9 | how | how | ADV | PronType=Int | 13 crawled | advmod |
| 10 | over | over | SCONJ | _ | 13 crawled | mark |
| 11 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 13 crawled | nsubj |
| 12 | there | there | ADV | PronType=Dem | 13 crawled | advmod |
| 13 | crawled | crawl | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 saw | conj |
| 14 | swiftly | swiftly | ADV | _ | 15 living | advmod |
| 15 | living | living | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 16 things | amod |
| 16 | things | thing | NOUN | Number=Plur | 13 crawled | obj |
| 17 | with | with | ADP | _ | 19 tails | case |
| 18 | pointed | point | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 19 tails | amod |
| 19 | tails | tail | NOUN | Number=Plur | 16 things | nmod |
| 20 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 23 colour | punct |
| 21 | of | of | ADP | _ | 23 colour | case |
| 22 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 colour | det |
| 23 | colour | colour | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 crawled | parataxis |
| 24 | of | of | ADP | _ | 25 sand | case |
| 25 | sand | sand | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 colour | nmod |
| 26 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 entered | punct |
| 27 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 28 entered | nsubj |
| 28 | entered | enter | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 23 colour | conj |
| 29 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 30 desert | det |
| 30 | desert | desert | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 entered | obj |
| 31 | by | by | ADP | _ | 33 holes | case |
| 32 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 33 holes | det |
| 33 | holes | hole | NOUN | Number=Plur | 28 entered | obl |
| 34 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 36 issued | punct |
| 35 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 36 issued | cc |
| 36 | issued | issue | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 7 saw | conj |
| 37 | from | from | ADP | _ | 38 them | case |
| 38 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 36 issued | obl |
| 39 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 43 stood | punct |
| 40 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 43 stood | cc |
| 41 | at | at | ADP | _ | 42 length | case |
| 42 | length | length | NOUN | Number=Sing | 43 stood | obl |
| 43 | stood | stand | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 saw | conj |
| 44 | still | still | ADV | _ | 43 stood | advmod |
| 45 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 47 became | punct |
| 46 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 47 became | cc |
| 47 | became | become | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 43 stood | conj |
| 48 | invisible | invisible | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 47 became | xcomp |
| 49 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 50 save | punct |
| 50 | save | save | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 47 became | xcomp |
| 51 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 55 rested | mark |
| 52 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 53 tails | nmod:poss |
| 53 | tails | tail | NOUN | Number=Plur | 55 rested | nsubj |
| 54 | never | never | ADV | PronType=Neg | 55 rested | advmod |
| 55 | rested | rest | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 50 save | advcl |
| 56 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 61 stood | punct |
| 57 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 61 stood | cc |
| 58 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 60 eyes | nmod:poss |
| 59 | bright | bright | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 60 eyes | amod |
| 60 | eyes | eye | NOUN | Number=Plur | 61 stood | nsubj |
| 61 | stood | stand | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 saw | conj |
| 62 | out | out | ADP | _ | 65 sand | case |
| 63 | of | of | ADP | _ | 65 sand | case |
| 64 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 65 sand | det |
| 65 | sand | sand | NOUN | Number=Sing | 61 stood | obl |
| 66 | to | to | PART | _ | 67 watch | mark |
| 67 | watch | watch | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 61 stood | advcl |
| 68 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 7 saw | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | gaze | past | surface | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 2 | see | past | surface | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | |||||
| 3 | crawl | past | quarter | living things | there | with pointed tails; the colour of sand parataxis | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial_Location thing=Theme | ||
| 4 | point | participle | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||||
| 5 | enter | past | the colour of sand | the desert | by the holes | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme desert=Destination | |||
| 6 | issue | participle | surface not said here | from holes = hole | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 7 | stand | past | surface not said here | length | still | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at length=Location | |||
| 8 | become | past | surface not said here | invisible property | tree rules | ||||
| 9 | save | infinitive | surface not said here | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 10 | not rest | past | holes's tails | vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 11 | stand out | past | holes's bright eyes | the sand | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer sand=Stimulus | ||||
| 12 | watch | to-infinitive | holes's bright eyes not said here | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=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/pg68641/6/100/