The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 2, sentence 121

But they were all so precisely alike that they looked like one face reflected in thirty mirrors, and the fly was nowhere to be seen; the second time he passed them he still saw nothing; but the third time he perceived a little fly stealing down one cheek, causing it to blush a faint pink.

Who acts: eyes, fly, little fly, mirror · What happens: be, reflect, see, pass, perceive, steal · To what, where: one face, thirty mirrors, fly, eyes, nothing, little fly

This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (eyes, fly, little fly, mirror), 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	But	but	CCONJ	_	10 looked	cc
2	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 looked	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 looked	cop
4	all	all	ADV	_	6 precisely	advmod
5	so	so	ADV	_	6 precisely	advmod
6	precisely	precisely	ADV	_	10 looked	advmod
7	alike	alike	SCONJ	_	10 looked	mark
8	that	that	SCONJ	_	10 looked	mark
9	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 looked	nsubj
10	looked	look	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
11	like	like	ADP	_	13 face	case
12	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	13 face	nummod
13	face	face	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 looked	obl
14	reflected	reflect	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	13 face	acl
15	in	in	ADP	_	17 mirrors	case
16	thirty	thirty	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	17 mirrors	nummod
17	mirrors	mirror	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 reflected	obl
18	,	,	PUNCT	_	26 seen	punct
19	and	and	CCONJ	_	26 seen	cc
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 fly	det
21	fly	fly	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 seen	nsubj
22	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	26 seen	aux:pass
23	nowhere	nowhere	ADV	PronType=Neg	26 seen	advmod
24	to	to	PART	_	26 seen	mark
25	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	26 seen	aux:pass
26	seen	see	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 looked	conj
27	;	;	PUNCT	_	36 saw	punct
28	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	30 time	det
29	second	second	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	30 time	amod
30	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	36 saw	obl:unmarked
31	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	32 passed	nsubj
32	passed	pass	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	30 time	acl:relcl
33	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	32 passed	obj
34	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	36 saw	nsubj
35	still	still	ADV	_	36 saw	advmod
36	saw	see	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 looked	conj
37	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	36 saw	obj
38	;	;	PUNCT	_	44 perceived	punct
39	but	but	CCONJ	_	44 perceived	cc
40	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	42 time	det
41	third	third	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	42 time	amod
42	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	44 perceived	obl:unmarked
43	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	44 perceived	nsubj
44	perceived	perceive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 looked	conj
45	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	47 fly	det
46	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	47 fly	amod
47	fly	fly	NOUN	Number=Sing	44 perceived	obj
48	stealing	steal	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	47 fly	acl
49	down	down	ADV	_	50 one	advmod
50	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	51 cheek	nummod
51	cheek	cheek	NOUN	Number=Sing	48 stealing	obj
52	,	,	PUNCT	_	53 causing	punct
53	causing	cause	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	48 stealing	conj
54	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	53 causing	obj
55	to	to	PART	_	56 blush	mark
56	blush	blush	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	53 causing	xcomp
57	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	59 pink	det
58	faint	faint	ADJ	Degree=Pos	59 pink	amod
59	pink	pink	NOUN	Number=Sing	56 blush	obj
60	.	.	PUNCT	_	10 looked	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	eyes = eye				like one face; look, precisely property	tree rules
2	reflect	participle		one face not said here	thirty mirrors			vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	see	past · passive		the fly			nowhere property	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Stimulus
4	pass	past	fly	eyes = eye				vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme they=Trajectory
5	see	past	fly	nothing		still; time		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer nothing=Stimulus
6	perceive	past	fly	a little fly		time		vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer fly=Stimulus
7	steal	gerund	a little fly not said here	one cheek				vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location cheek=Theme
8	cause	gerund	a little fly not said here	mirror				tree rules
9	blush	to-infinitive	mirror not said here	a faint pink				tree rules

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/pg7277/27/121/