The Green Fairy Book, Jack My Hedgehog, sentence 24
The King desired the servant to ask the strange creature why it sat there, and if it knew the shortest way to his kingdom.
Who acts: King, creature · What happens: desire, ask, sit, know · To what, where: servant, strange creature, shortest way
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Jack My Hedgehog. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (King, creature), 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 | 3 desired | nsubj |
| 3 | desired | desire | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 servant | det |
| 5 | servant | servant | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 desired | obj |
| 6 | to | to | PART | _ | 7 ask | mark |
| 7 | ask | ask | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 desired | advcl |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 creature | det |
| 9 | strange | strange | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 10 creature | amod |
| 10 | creature | creature | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 ask | obj |
| 11 | why | why | ADV | PronType=Int | 13 sat | advmod |
| 12 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 13 sat | nsubj |
| 13 | sat | sit | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 creature | acl:relcl |
| 14 | there | there | ADV | PronType=Dem | 13 sat | advmod |
| 15 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 knew | punct |
| 16 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 19 knew | cc |
| 17 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 19 knew | mark |
| 18 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 knew | nsubj |
| 19 | knew | know | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 desired | parataxis |
| 20 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 22 way | det |
| 21 | shortest | short | ADJ | Degree=Sup | 22 way | amod |
| 22 | way | way | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 knew | obj |
| 23 | to | to | ADP | _ | 25 kingdom | case |
| 24 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 25 kingdom | nmod:poss |
| 25 | kingdom | kingdom | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 knew | obl |
| 26 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 desired | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | desire | past | the King | the servant | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot servant=Theme | ||||
| 2 | ask speech: ask | to-infinitive | the King not said here | the strange creature | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent creature=Recipient | ||||
| 3 | sit | past | creature | there | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 4 | know a condition, not said to happen | past | creature | the shortest way | to King's kingdom | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer way=Stimulus |
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/pg7277/48/24/