The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 1, sentence 96

Soon after this a shepherd happened to pass by with his flock, and while he was slowly following the sheep, who paused here and there by the wayside to browse on the tender grass, he heard a pitiful voice wailing, ‘They insist on my taking her, and I don’t want her, for I am too old, and I really can’t have her.’

Who acts: shepherd, sheep, pitiful voice, my, I · What happens: happen, pass, follow, pause, browse, hear · To what, where: sheep, tender grass, pitiful voice, noise · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (shepherd, sheep, pitiful voice, my), 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	Soon	soon	ADV	Degree=Pos	6 happened	advmod
2	after	after	ADP	_	3 this	case
3	this	this	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	1 Soon	obl
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 shepherd	det
5	shepherd	shepherd	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 happened	nsubj
6	happened	happen	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	to	to	PART	_	8 pass	mark
8	pass	pass	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 happened	xcomp
9	by	by	ADP	_	12 flock	case
10	with	with	ADP	_	12 flock	case
11	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 flock	nmod:poss
12	flock	flock	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 pass	obl
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	39 heard	punct
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	39 heard	cc
15	while	while	SCONJ	_	19 following	mark
16	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 following	nsubj
17	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	19 following	aux
18	slowly	slowly	ADV	_	19 following	advmod
19	following	follow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	39 heard	advcl
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 sheep	det
21	sheep	sheep	NOUN	Number=Plur	19 following	obj
22	,	,	PUNCT	_	24 paused	punct
23	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	24 paused	nsubj
24	paused	pause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	21 sheep	conj
25	here	here	ADV	PronType=Dem	24 paused	advmod
26	and	and	CCONJ	_	27 there	cc
27	there	there	ADV	PronType=Dem	25 here	conj
28	by	by	ADP	_	30 wayside	case
29	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	30 wayside	det
30	wayside	wayside	NOUN	Number=Sing	24 paused	obl
31	to	to	PART	_	32 browse	mark
32	browse	browse	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	24 paused	advcl
33	on	on	ADP	_	36 grass	case
34	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	36 grass	det
35	tender	tender	NOUN	Number=Sing	36 grass	compound
36	grass	grass	NOUN	Number=Sing	32 browse	obl
37	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 following	punct
38	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	39 heard	nsubj
39	heard	hear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 happened	conj
40	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	42 voice	det
41	pitiful	pitiful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	42 voice	amod
42	voice	voice	NOUN	Number=Sing	39 heard	obj
43	wailing	wail	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	42 voice	acl
44	,	,	PUNCT	_	47 insist	punct
45	‘	'	PUNCT	_	47 insist	punct
46	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	47 insist	nsubj
47	insist	insist	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	43 wailing	conj
48	on	on	SCONJ	_	50 taking	mark
49	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	50 taking	nsubj
50	taking	take	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	47 insist	advcl
51	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	50 taking	obj
52	,	,	PUNCT	_	57 want	punct
53	and	and	CCONJ	_	57 want	cc
54	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	57 want	nsubj
55	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	57 want	aux
56	n’t	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	57 want	advmod
57	want	want	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	39 heard	ccomp
58	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	57 want	obj
59	,	,	PUNCT	_	64 old	punct
60	for	for	ADP	_	64 old	case
61	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	64 old	nsubj
62	am	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	64 old	cop
63	too	too	ADV	_	64 old	advmod
64	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	57 want	conj
65	,	,	PUNCT	_	71 have	punct
66	and	and	CCONJ	_	71 have	cc
67	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	71 have	nsubj
68	really	really	ADV	_	71 have	advmod
69	ca	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	71 have	aux
70	n’t	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	71 have	advmod
71	have	have	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 happened	parataxis
72	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	71 have	obj
73	.	.	PUNCT	_	71 have	punct
74	’	'	PUNCT	_	71 have	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	other	roles by
1	happen	past	a shepherd				soon property	tree rules
2	pass	to-infinitive	a shepherd not said here				by shepherd's flock	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme by flock=Location
3	follow	past · progressive	shepherd	the sheep			slowly property	vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sheep=Theme
4	pause	past	the sheep			here	by the wayside	vn linger-53.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent by wayside=Location
5	browse	to-infinitive	the sheep not said here			the tender grass		tree rules
6	hear	past	shepherd	a pitiful voice				tree rules
7	wail	gerund	a pitiful voice not said here					vn animal_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent
8	insist speech: other	present	sheep					vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent
9	take	gerund	my		noise			vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument she=Destination
10	not want	present · do-support	I	noise				vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot she=Theme
11	is	present	I				old property	tree rules
12	not have	can	I	noise				vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7277/26/96/