The Green Fairy Book, The Golden Blackbird, sentence 6
He did not know which to choose, and tossed his cap in the air, determining that the direction of its fall should decide him.
Who acts: man, direction · What happens: not know, choose, toss, determine, decide · To what, where: cap, air, man · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Blackbird. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, direction), 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 | He | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 know | nsubj |
| 2 | did | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 know | aux |
| 3 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 4 know | advmod |
| 4 | know | know | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 5 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 7 choose | nsubj |
| 6 | to | to | PART | _ | 7 choose | mark |
| 7 | choose | choose | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 know | ccomp |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 tossed | punct |
| 9 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 10 tossed | cc |
| 10 | tossed | toss | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 know | parataxis |
| 11 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 12 cap | nmod:poss |
| 12 | cap | cap | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 tossed | obj |
| 13 | in | in | ADP | _ | 15 air | case |
| 14 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 air | det |
| 15 | air | air | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 tossed | obl |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 determining | punct |
| 17 | determining | determine | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 10 tossed | advcl |
| 18 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 25 decide | mark |
| 19 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 20 direction | det |
| 20 | direction | direction | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 decide | nsubj |
| 21 | of | of | ADP | _ | 23 fall | case |
| 22 | its | its | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 23 fall | nmod:poss |
| 23 | fall | fall | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 direction | nmod |
| 24 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 25 decide | aux |
| 25 | decide | decide | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 17 determining | advcl |
| 26 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 25 decide | obj |
| 27 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 know | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not know | past · do-support | man | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | |||||
| 2 | choose | to-infinitive | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | ||||||
| 3 | toss | past | man's cap | the air | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent cap=Theme in air=Destination | ||||
| 4 | determine | gerund | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | ||||||
| 5 | decide | should | the direction of direction's fall | man | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent he=Topic |
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/pg7277/21/6/