The Green Fairy Book, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 3, sentence 20
‘“Nothing at all, I assure you,” I replied in a tone which really ought to have convinced them, but they went on to describe various employments, and tried to discover which of them would be most to my taste.
Who acts: I, King, my · What happens: assure, reply, convince, go on, describe, try · To what, where: Nothing, you, tone, various employments · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Prince Vivien and the Princess Placida, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, King, 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 | ‘ | ' | PUNCT | _ | 8 assure | punct |
| 2 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 3 Nothing | punct |
| 3 | Nothing | nothing | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Neg | 8 assure | obl |
| 4 | at | at | ADP | _ | 5 all | case |
| 5 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 3 Nothing | nmod |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 Nothing | punct |
| 7 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 8 assure | nsubj |
| 8 | assure | assure | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 9 | you | you | PRON | Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs | 8 assure | iobj |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 8 assure | punct |
| 11 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 8 assure | punct |
| 12 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 13 replied | nsubj |
| 13 | replied | reply | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 assure | parataxis |
| 14 | in | in | ADP | _ | 16 tone | case |
| 15 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 16 tone | det |
| 16 | tone | tone | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 replied | obl |
| 17 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 22 convinced | obj |
| 18 | really | really | ADV | _ | 22 convinced | advmod |
| 19 | ought | ought | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 22 convinced | aux |
| 20 | to | to | PART | _ | 22 convinced | mark |
| 21 | have | have | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 22 convinced | aux |
| 22 | convinced | convince | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 16 tone | acl:relcl |
| 23 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 22 convinced | obj |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 27 went | punct |
| 25 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 27 went | cc |
| 26 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 27 went | nsubj |
| 27 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 13 replied | conj |
| 28 | on | on | ADV | _ | 27 went | advmod |
| 29 | to | to | PART | _ | 30 describe | mark |
| 30 | describe | describe | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 27 went | xcomp |
| 31 | various | various | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 32 employments | amod |
| 32 | employments | employment | NOUN | Number=Plur | 30 describe | obj |
| 33 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 35 tried | punct |
| 34 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 35 tried | cc |
| 35 | tried | try | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 13 replied | conj |
| 36 | to | to | PART | _ | 37 discover | mark |
| 37 | discover | discover | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 35 tried | xcomp |
| 38 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 43 most | obj |
| 39 | of | of | ADP | _ | 40 them | case |
| 40 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 38 which | obl |
| 41 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 43 most | aux |
| 42 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 43 most | aux:pass |
| 43 | most | many | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 37 discover | ccomp |
| 44 | to | to | ADP | _ | 46 taste | case |
| 45 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 46 taste | nmod:poss |
| 46 | taste | taste | NOUN | Number=Sing | 43 most | obl |
| 47 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 assure | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | assure in a quote | present | I | Nothing | you | vn advise-37.9 «NP V NP.recipient that S»: agent=Agent you=Recipient clause=Topic | |||
| 2 | reply speech: assert | past | I | a tone | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 3 | convince | ought · perfect | I not said here | a tone | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Stimulus which=Experiencer they=Result | ||||
| 4 | go on | past | King | vn begin-55.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 5 | describe | to-infinitive | King not said here | various employments | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent employment=Theme | ||||
| 6 | try | past | I not said here | vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 7 | discover not said to happen | to-infinitive | I not said here | vn discover-84-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 8 | many | would · passive | I not said here | to my taste | tree rules | ||||
| 9 | taste | my | nom taste «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/pg7277/38/20/