The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 2, sentence 59
Only the thirtieth little duck couldn’t come to the land; it swam about close to the shore, and, giving out a piercing cry, it stretched its neck up timidly, gazed wildly around, and then dived under again.
Who acts: thirtieth little duck, land · What happens: not come, swim, give out, stretch up, gaze, dive · To what, where: land, piercing cry, neck
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 (thirtieth little duck, land), 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 | Only | only | ADV | _ | 5 duck | advmod |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 duck | det |
| 3 | thirtieth | thirtieth | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 duck | amod |
| 4 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 duck | amod |
| 5 | duck | duck | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 come | nsubj |
| 6 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 8 come | aux |
| 7 | n’t | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 8 come | advmod |
| 8 | come | come | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 9 | to | to | ADP | _ | 11 land | case |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 land | det |
| 11 | land | land | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 come | obl |
| 12 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 14 swam | punct |
| 13 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 14 swam | nsubj |
| 14 | swam | swim | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 come | parataxis |
| 15 | about | about | ADV | _ | 16 close | advmod |
| 16 | close | close | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 14 swam | xcomp |
| 17 | to | to | ADP | _ | 19 shore | case |
| 18 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 19 shore | det |
| 19 | shore | shore | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 close | obl |
| 20 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 30 stretched | punct |
| 21 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 30 stretched | cc |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 23 giving | punct |
| 23 | giving | give | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 30 stretched | advcl |
| 24 | out | out | ADP | _ | 23 giving | compound:prt |
| 25 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 27 cry | det |
| 26 | piercing | piercing | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 cry | compound |
| 27 | cry | cry | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 giving | obj |
| 28 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 23 giving | punct |
| 29 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 30 stretched | nsubj |
| 30 | stretched | stretch | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 14 swam | conj |
| 31 | its | its | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 32 neck | nmod:poss |
| 32 | neck | neck | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 stretched | obj |
| 33 | up | up | ADP | _ | 30 stretched | compound:prt |
| 34 | timidly | timidly | ADV | _ | 30 stretched | advmod |
| 35 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 36 gazed | punct |
| 36 | gazed | gaze | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 14 swam | conj |
| 37 | wildly | wildly | ADV | _ | 38 around | advmod |
| 38 | around | around | ADV | _ | 36 gazed | advmod |
| 39 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 42 dived | punct |
| 40 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 42 dived | cc |
| 41 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 42 dived | advmod |
| 42 | dived | dive | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 14 swam | conj |
| 43 | under | under | ADP | _ | 44 again | case |
| 44 | again | again | ADV | _ | 42 dived | obl |
| 45 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 come | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not come | could | the thirtieth little duck | the land | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to land=Initial_Location | ||||
| 2 | swim | past | land | close property | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 3 | give out | gerund | land not said here | a piercing cry | vn contribute-13.2 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent cry=Theme | ||||
| 4 | stretch up | past | land | land's neck | timidly property | vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent neck=Patient | |||
| 5 | gaze | past | land not said here | around property | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 6 | dive | past | land not said here | then | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent under again=Location |
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/pg7277/27/59/