The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 2, sentence 15

King Kojata at once tried to seize the vessel, but though he endeavoured to grasp it with his right hand, and then with his left, the wretched thing always eluded his efforts and refused to let itself be caught.

Who acts: King, wretched thing, thing · What happens: try, seize, endeavour, grasp, elude, refuse · To what, where: vessel, efforts, thing

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 (King, wretched thing, thing), 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	King	King	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 tried	nsubj
2	Kojata	Kojata	PROPN	Number=Sing	1 King	flat
3	at	at	ADP	_	4 once	case
4	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	5 tried	obl
5	tried	try	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	7 seize	mark
7	seize	seize	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 tried	xcomp
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 vessel	det
9	vessel	vessel	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 seize	obj
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 endeavoured	punct
11	but	but	CCONJ	_	14 endeavoured	cc
12	though	though	SCONJ	_	14 endeavoured	mark
13	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 endeavoured	nsubj
14	endeavoured	endeavour	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 tried	parataxis
15	to	to	PART	_	16 grasp	mark
16	grasp	grasp	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	14 endeavoured	xcomp
17	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 grasp	obj
18	with	with	ADP	_	21 hand	case
19	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	21 hand	nmod:poss
20	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	21 hand	amod
21	hand	hand	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 grasp	obl
22	,	,	PUNCT	_	33 eluded	punct
23	and	and	CCONJ	_	33 eluded	cc
24	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	33 eluded	advmod
25	with	with	ADP	_	27 left	case
26	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	27 left	nmod:poss
27	left	left	NOUN	Number=Sing	33 eluded	obl
28	,	,	PUNCT	_	27 left	punct
29	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	31 thing	det
30	wretched	wretched	ADJ	Degree=Pos	31 thing	amod
31	thing	thing	NOUN	Number=Sing	33 eluded	nsubj
32	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	33 eluded	advmod
33	eluded	elude	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 endeavoured	conj
34	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	35 efforts	nmod:poss
35	efforts	effort	NOUN	Number=Plur	33 eluded	obj
36	and	and	CCONJ	_	37 refused	cc
37	refused	refuse	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 endeavoured	conj
38	to	to	PART	_	39 let	mark
39	let	let	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	37 refused	xcomp
40	itself	itself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	39 let	obj
41	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	42 caught	aux:pass
42	caught	catch	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	39 let	xcomp
43	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 tried	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	try	past	King				vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
2	seize not said to happen	to-infinitive	King not said here	the vessel			vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent vessel=Theme
3	endeavour	past	KING				tree rules
4	grasp	to-infinitive	KING not said here	vessel		with KING's right hand	vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent it=Theme with hand=Instrument
5	elude	past	the wretched thing	KING's efforts	then	with KING's left; always property	vn avoid-52 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent effort=Location
6	refuse	past	KING not said here				vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
7	not let	to-infinitive	KING not said here	thing			tree rules
8	catch	infinitive · passive	thing not said here				vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»

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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