Indian tales of the great ones among men, women, and bird-people, Opening, part 5, sentence 24
“Let the old leaves, and the middle-aged leaves, and the little baby leaves fall from the trees,” was what they said, when they flew back to the Earth on the wings of the morning.
Who acts: little baby leaves, leaves · What happens: let, fall, be, say, fly back · To what, where: old leaves, trees, wings · 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 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (little baby leaves, leaves), 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 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 2 Let | punct |
| 2 | Let | let | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | 26 what | parataxis |
| 3 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 leaves | det |
| 4 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 leaves | amod |
| 5 | leaves | leaf | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 Let | obj |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 leaves | punct |
| 7 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 12 leaves | cc |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 leaves | det |
| 9 | middle | middle | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 11 aged | amod |
| 10 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 9 middle | punct |
| 11 | aged | aged | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 12 leaves | amod |
| 12 | leaves | leaf | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 Let | obl |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 fall | punct |
| 14 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 19 fall | cc |
| 15 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 18 leaves | det |
| 16 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 18 leaves | amod |
| 17 | baby | baby | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 leaves | compound |
| 18 | leaves | leaf | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 fall | nsubj |
| 19 | fall | fall | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 2 Let | advcl |
| 20 | from | from | ADP | _ | 22 trees | case |
| 21 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 22 trees | det |
| 22 | trees | tree | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 fall | obl |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 fall | punct |
| 24 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 2 Let | punct |
| 25 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 26 what | cop |
| 26 | what | what | PRON | PronType=Int | root | root |
| 27 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 28 said | nsubj |
| 28 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 26 what | acl:relcl |
| 29 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 32 flew | punct |
| 30 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 32 flew | advmod |
| 31 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 32 flew | nsubj |
| 32 | flew | fly | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 28 said | ccomp |
| 33 | back | back | ADV | _ | 32 flew | advmod |
| 34 | to | to | ADP | _ | 36 Earth | case |
| 35 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 36 Earth | det |
| 36 | Earth | Earth | PROPN | Number=Sing | 32 flew | obl |
| 37 | on | on | ADP | _ | 39 wings | case |
| 38 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 39 wings | det |
| 39 | wings | wing | NOUN | Number=Plur | 32 flew | obl |
| 40 | of | of | ADP | _ | 42 morning | case |
| 41 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 42 morning | det |
| 42 | morning | morning | NOUN | Number=Sing | 39 wings | nmod |
| 43 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 26 what | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | let in a quote | infinitive | the old leaves | the aged leaves obl | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leaf=Theme | ||||
| 2 | fall in a quote | present | the little baby leaves | the trees | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme from tree=Initial_Location | ||||
| 3 | is a | past | tree rules | ||||||
| 4 | say speech: assert | past | leaves = leaf | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 5 | fly back | past | leaves = leaf | the wings of the morning | to the Earth | vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on wing=Location |
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/pg69647/5/24/