The Green Fairy Book, Prince Narcissus and the Princess Potentilla, sentence 143

The King and Queen were somewhat embarrassed to know what answer to make to this terrible suitor, but at last they asked for time to talk over the matter: since, they said, their subjects might think that the heir to the throne should not be married with as little consideration as a dairymaid.

Who acts: King, subjects · What happens: be, know, make, ask, talk, say · To what, where: answer, last, matter, heir · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Narcissus and the Princess Potentilla. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, subjects), 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 King	det
2	King	King	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 embarrassed	nsubj
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	4 Queen	cc
4	Queen	Queen	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 King	conj
5	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 embarrassed	cop
6	somewhat	somewhat	ADV	_	7 embarrassed	advmod
7	embarrassed	embarrassed	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
8	to	to	PART	_	9 know	mark
9	know	know	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 embarrassed	csubj
10	what	what	DET	PronType=Int	11 answer	det
11	answer	answer	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 know	obj
12	to	to	PART	_	13 make	mark
13	make	make	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 know	ccomp
14	to	to	ADP	_	17 suitor	case
15	this	this	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	17 suitor	det
16	terrible	terrible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 suitor	amod
17	suitor	suitor	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 make	obl
18	,	,	PUNCT	_	23 asked	punct
19	but	but	CCONJ	_	23 asked	cc
20	at	at	ADP	_	21 last	case
21	last	last	ADJ	Degree=Pos	23 asked	obl
22	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	23 asked	nsubj
23	asked	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 embarrassed	conj
24	for	for	ADP	_	25 time	case
25	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 asked	obl
26	to	to	PART	_	27 talk	mark
27	talk	talk	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	23 asked	ccomp
28	over	over	ADP	_	30 matter	case
29	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	30 matter	det
30	matter	matter	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 talk	obl
31	:	:	PUNCT	_	35 said	punct
32	since	since	ADV	_	35 said	advmod
33	,	,	PUNCT	_	32 since	punct
34	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	35 said	nsubj
35	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 embarrassed	conj
36	,	,	PUNCT	_	40 think	punct
37	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	38 subjects	nmod:poss
38	subjects	subject	NOUN	Number=Plur	40 think	nsubj
39	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	40 think	aux
40	think	think	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	35 said	ccomp
41	that	that	SCONJ	_	50 married	mark
42	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	43 heir	det
43	heir	heir	NOUN	Number=Sing	50 married	nsubj:pass
44	to	to	ADP	_	46 throne	case
45	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	46 throne	det
46	throne	throne	NOUN	Number=Sing	43 heir	nmod
47	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	50 married	aux
48	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	50 married	advmod
49	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	50 married	aux:pass
50	married	marry	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	40 think	ccomp
51	with	with	ADP	_	50 married	obl
52	as	as	ADP	_	54 consideration	case
53	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	54 consideration	amod
54	consideration	consideration	NOUN	Number=Sing	50 married	obl
55	as	as	ADP	_	57 dairymaid	case
56	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	57 dairymaid	det
57	dairymaid	dairymaid	NOUN	Number=Sing	50 married	obl
58	.	.	PUNCT	_	7 embarrassed	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the King and Queen				embarrassed, somewhat property	tree rules
2	know	to-infinitive		what answer				tree rules
3	make	to-infinitive					to this terrible suitor	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset
4	ask speech: ask	past	King		last	time		vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
5	talk not said to happen	to-infinitive			the matter			vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent
6	say speech: assert	past	King				since property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
7	think speech: other	might	King's subjects					vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
8	not marry	should · passive		the heir to the throne			as little consideration; as a dairymaid	vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

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.

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