The Green Fairy Book, The Green Fairy Book, sentence 9
The reason, no doubt, is that men were much like children in their minds long ago, long, long ago, and so before they took to writing newspapers, and sermons, and novels, and long poems, they told each other stories, such as you read in the fairy books.
Who acts: men, you · What happens: be, take, tell, read, mind · To what, where: minds, sermons, long poems, other stories, fairy books · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Green Fairy Book. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (men, you), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.
Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher. This tree is Mova's own parse (the en model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.
The tree
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 reason | det |
| 2 | reason | reason | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 3 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 5 doubt | punct |
| 4 | no | no | DET | PronType=Neg | 5 doubt | det |
| 5 | doubt | doubt | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 reason | conj |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 2 reason | punct |
| 7 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 13 children | cop |
| 8 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 13 children | mark |
| 9 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 13 children | nsubj |
| 10 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 13 children | cop |
| 11 | much | much | ADV | _ | 13 children | advmod |
| 12 | like | like | ADP | _ | 13 children | case |
| 13 | children | child | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 reason | nmod |
| 14 | in | in | ADP | _ | 16 minds | case |
| 15 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 16 minds | nmod:poss |
| 16 | minds | mind | NOUN | Number=Plur | 13 children | nmod |
| 17 | long | long | ADV | Degree=Pos | 18 ago | advmod |
| 18 | ago | ago | ADV | _ | 16 minds | advmod |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 long | punct |
| 20 | long | long | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 16 minds | amod |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 23 ago | punct |
| 22 | long | long | ADV | Degree=Pos | 23 ago | advmod |
| 23 | ago | ago | ADV | _ | 20 long | advmod |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 29 took | punct |
| 25 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 29 took | cc |
| 26 | so | so | ADV | _ | 29 took | advmod |
| 27 | before | before | SCONJ | _ | 29 took | mark |
| 28 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 29 took | nsubj |
| 29 | took | take | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 13 children | parataxis |
| 30 | to | to | ADP | _ | 32 newspapers | case |
| 31 | writing | writing | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 newspapers | compound |
| 32 | newspapers | newspaper | NOUN | Number=Plur | 29 took | obl |
| 33 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 35 sermons | punct |
| 34 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 35 sermons | cc |
| 35 | sermons | sermon | NOUN | Number=Plur | 29 took | obl |
| 36 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 38 novels | punct |
| 37 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 38 novels | cc |
| 38 | novels | novel | NOUN | Number=Plur | 29 took | obl |
| 39 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 45 told | punct |
| 40 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 45 told | cc |
| 41 | long | long | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 42 poems | amod |
| 42 | poems | poem | NOUN | Number=Plur | 45 told | obl |
| 43 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 42 poems | punct |
| 44 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 45 told | nsubj |
| 45 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 29 took | conj |
| 46 | each | each | DET | PronType=Tot | 48 stories | det |
| 47 | other | other | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 48 stories | amod |
| 48 | stories | story | NOUN | Number=Plur | 45 told | obj |
| 49 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 53 read | punct |
| 50 | such | such | ADJ | Degree=Pos ExtPos=ADP | 53 read | case |
| 51 | as | as | ADP | _ | 50 such | fixed |
| 52 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 53 read | nsubj |
| 53 | read | read | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 48 stories | acl:relcl |
| 54 | in | in | ADP | _ | 57 books | case |
| 55 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 57 books | det |
| 56 | fairy | fairy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 57 books | compound |
| 57 | books | book | NOUN | Number=Plur | 53 read | obl |
| 58 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 reason | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | men | men's minds | like children | tree rules | |||
| 2 | take | past | men = man | sermons | to writing newspapers result; novels obl | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Patient to newspaper=Result | |||
| 3 | tell speech: assert | past | men = man | long poems | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent story=Recipient | ||||
| 4 | read | present | you | each other stories not said here | the fairy books | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent story=Topic | |||
| 5 | mind | men = man | nom mind «cognition 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 Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 7277 (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/pg7277/1/9/