Indian tales of the great ones among men, women, and bird-people, Opening, part 3, sentence 98
And in the old days men thought it not wrong to try and snatch away from others anything which they wished to possess--be this thing what it might, rich city or lovely lady or priceless jewel.
Who acts: men · What happens: think, try, snatch away, wish, possess, be · To what, where: anything, thing · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Indian tales of the great ones among men, women, and bird-people» by Cornelia Sorabji, Opening, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (men), 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 thought | cc |
| 2 | in | in | ADP | _ | 5 days | case |
| 3 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 days | det |
| 4 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 days | amod |
| 5 | days | day | NOUN | Number=Plur | 7 thought | obl |
| 6 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 7 thought | nsubj |
| 7 | thought | think | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 8 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 10 wrong | nsubj |
| 9 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 10 wrong | advmod |
| 10 | wrong | wrong | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 thought | ccomp |
| 11 | to | to | PART | _ | 12 try | mark |
| 12 | try | try | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 10 wrong | csubj |
| 13 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 14 snatch | cc |
| 14 | snatch | snatch | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 12 try | conj |
| 15 | away | away | ADV | _ | 14 snatch | advmod |
| 16 | from | from | ADP | _ | 18 anything | case |
| 17 | others | other | NOUN | Number=Plur | 18 anything | nsubj |
| 18 | anything | anything | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Ind | 14 snatch | obl |
| 19 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 21 wished | nsubj |
| 20 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 21 wished | nsubj |
| 21 | wished | wish | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 18 anything | acl:relcl |
| 22 | to | to | PART | _ | 23 possess | mark |
| 23 | possess | possess | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 21 wished | xcomp |
| 24 | -- | -- | PUNCT | _ | 27 thing | punct |
| 25 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 27 thing | cop |
| 26 | this | this | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 27 thing | det |
| 27 | thing | thing | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 possess | obj |
| 28 | what | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 27 thing | appos |
| 29 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 30 might | nsubj |
| 30 | might | might | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 28 what | acl:relcl |
| 31 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 33 city | punct |
| 32 | rich | rich | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 33 city | amod |
| 33 | city | city | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 thing | appos |
| 34 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 36 lady | cc |
| 35 | lovely | lovely | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 36 lady | amod |
| 36 | lady | lady | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 city | conj |
| 37 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 39 jewel | cc |
| 38 | priceless | priceless | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 39 jewel | amod |
| 39 | jewel | jewel | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 lady | conj |
| 40 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 7 thought | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | think speech: other | past | men | day | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 2 | try | to-infinitive | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer | ||||||
| 3 | snatch away | infinitive | anything others | away property | vn steal-10.5 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent from anything=Source | ||||
| 4 | wish | past | which nsubj; others = other nsubj | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme | |||||
| 5 | possess not said to happen | to-infinitive | vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot | ||||||
| 6 | is a | infinitive | this thing | what appos; rich city or lovely lady or priceless jewel appos | tree rules |
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/pg69647/3/98/