Indian tales of the great ones among men, women, and bird-people, Opening, part 1, sentence 140
And this was in the days long ago, when men were knights and fought for their ladies, and did with their own hand the thing which was not easy to do.
Who acts: this, men, thing · What happens: be, fight, do, not be
This is a sentence of «Indian tales of the great ones among men, women, and bird-people» by Cornelia Sorabji, Opening, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (this, men, thing), 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 | _ | 15 fought | cc |
| 2 | this | this | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 6 days | nsubj |
| 3 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 days | cop |
| 4 | in | in | ADP | _ | 6 days | case |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 days | det |
| 6 | days | day | NOUN | Number=Plur | 15 fought | obl:unmarked |
| 7 | long | long | ADV | Degree=Pos | 8 ago | advmod |
| 8 | ago | ago | ADV | _ | 6 days | advmod |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 were | punct |
| 10 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 12 were | advmod |
| 11 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 were | nsubj |
| 12 | were | be | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 15 fought | advcl |
| 13 | knights | knight | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 were | nsubj |
| 14 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 15 fought | cc |
| 15 | fought | fight | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 16 | for | for | ADP | _ | 18 ladies | case |
| 17 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 18 ladies | nmod:poss |
| 18 | ladies | lady | NOUN | Number=Plur | 15 fought | obl |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 21 did | punct |
| 20 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 21 did | cc |
| 21 | did | do | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 15 fought | conj |
| 22 | with | with | ADP | _ | 25 hand | case |
| 23 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 25 hand | nmod:poss |
| 24 | own | own | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 25 hand | amod |
| 25 | hand | hand | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 did | obl |
| 26 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 27 thing | det |
| 27 | thing | thing | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 hand | appos |
| 28 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 31 easy | nsubj |
| 29 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 31 easy | cop |
| 30 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 31 easy | advmod |
| 31 | easy | easy | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 27 thing | acl:relcl |
| 32 | to | to | PART | _ | 33 do | mark |
| 33 | do | do | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 31 easy | xcomp |
| 34 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 15 fought | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | this | in the days | ago property | tree rules | |||
| 2 | be | past | men | knights nsubj | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 3 | fight | past | for Men's ladies | vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 4 | do | past | with Men's own hand | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 5 | not is | past | the thing | easy property | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | do | to-infinitive | the thing not said here | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: 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: «Indian tales of the great ones among men, women, and bird-people» by Cornelia Sorabji, Project Gutenberg book 69647 (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/pg69647/1/140/