The Green Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 4, sentence 66
The King was growing old and feeble, and wished to yield his sceptre and crown in favour of one of his sons, but he couldn’t make up his mind which of the three he should appoint as his successor.
Who acts: King, three · What happens: grow, wish, yield, not make up, appoint, mind · To what, where: sceptre, favour, mind
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Biter Bit, part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, three), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 King | det |
| 2 | King | King | PROPN | Number=Sing | 4 growing | nsubj |
| 3 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 growing | aux |
| 4 | growing | grow | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 5 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 growing | xcomp |
| 6 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 7 feeble | cc |
| 7 | feeble | feeble | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 old | conj |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 wished | punct |
| 9 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 10 wished | cc |
| 10 | wished | wish | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 growing | conj |
| 11 | to | to | PART | _ | 12 yield | mark |
| 12 | yield | yield | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 10 wished | xcomp |
| 13 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 14 sceptre | nmod:poss |
| 14 | sceptre | sceptre | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 yield | obj |
| 15 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 16 crown | cc |
| 16 | crown | crown | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 sceptre | conj |
| 17 | in | in | ADP | _ | 18 favour | case |
| 18 | favour | favour | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 yield | obl |
| 19 | of | of | ADP | _ | 20 one | case |
| 20 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 18 favour | nmod |
| 21 | of | of | ADP | _ | 23 sons | case |
| 22 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 23 sons | nmod:poss |
| 23 | sons | son | NOUN | Number=Plur | 20 one | nmod |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 29 make | punct |
| 25 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 29 make | cc |
| 26 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 29 make | nsubj |
| 27 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 29 make | aux |
| 28 | n’t | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 29 make | advmod |
| 29 | make | make | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 10 wished | advcl |
| 30 | up | up | ADP | _ | 29 make | compound:prt |
| 31 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 32 mind | nmod:poss |
| 32 | mind | mind | NOUN | Number=Sing | 29 make | obj |
| 33 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 39 appoint | obj |
| 34 | of | of | ADP | _ | 36 three | case |
| 35 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 36 three | det |
| 36 | three | three | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 39 appoint | nsubj |
| 37 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 39 appoint | nsubj |
| 38 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 39 appoint | aux |
| 39 | appoint | appoint | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 32 mind | acl:relcl |
| 40 | as | as | ADP | _ | 42 successor | case |
| 41 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 42 successor | nmod:poss |
| 42 | successor | successor | NOUN | Number=Sing | 39 appoint | obl |
| 43 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 growing | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | grow | past · progressive | the King | old property | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 2 | wish | past | the King not said here | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme | |||||
| 3 | yield not said to happen | to-infinitive | the King not said here | king's sceptre and crown | favour of one of king's sons | vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent sceptre=Theme | |||
| 4 | not make up | could | king | king's mind | vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme mind=Pivot | ||||
| 5 | appoint | should | the three | king's mind | as king's successor | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent which=Theme as successor=Attribute | |||
| 6 | mind | king | nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |
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/pg7277/29/66/