The Green Fairy Book, The Golden Mermaid, sentence 101

They turned as white as death when they saw their brother, whom they thought they had murdered, standing beside them alive and well, and so startled were they that when the King asked them why they had behaved so wickedly to their brother they could think of no lie, but confessed at once that they had slain the young Prince in order to obtain possession of the golden horse and the golden bird.

Who acts: sons, King · What happens: turn, see, think, murder, stand, startle · To what, where: brother, that, sons, young Prince, order, possession · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Golden Mermaid. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sons, King), 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	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 turned	nsubj
2	turned	turn	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	as	as	ADV	_	4 white	advmod
4	white	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 turned	xcomp
5	as	as	ADP	_	6 death	case
6	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 white	obl
7	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	9 saw	advmod
8	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 saw	nsubj
9	saw	see	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 turned	advcl
10	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 brother	nmod:poss
11	brother	brother	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 saw	obj
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 thought	punct
13	whom	whom	PRON	PronType=Rel	15 thought	obj
14	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 thought	nsubj
15	thought	think	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 brother	acl:relcl
16	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	18 murdered	nsubj
17	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	18 murdered	aux
18	murdered	murder	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	15 thought	ccomp
19	,	,	PUNCT	_	20 standing	punct
20	standing	stand	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	18 murdered	advcl
21	beside	beside	ADP	_	22 them	case
22	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	20 standing	obl
23	alive	alive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	20 standing	xcomp
24	and	and	CCONJ	_	25 well	cc
25	well	well	ADV	Degree=Pos	23 alive	conj
26	,	,	PUNCT	_	29 startled	punct
27	and	and	CCONJ	_	29 startled	cc
28	so	so	ADV	_	29 startled	advmod
29	startled	startle	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 turned	conj
30	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	32 that	cop
31	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	32 that	nsubj
32	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	29 startled	obj
33	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	36 asked	advmod
34	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	35 King	det
35	King	King	PROPN	Number=Sing	36 asked	nsubj
36	asked	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	29 startled	advcl
37	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	36 asked	obj
38	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	41 behaved	advmod
39	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	41 behaved	nsubj
40	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	41 behaved	aux
41	behaved	behave	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	36 asked	advcl
42	so	so	ADV	_	43 wickedly	advmod
43	wickedly	wickedly	ADV	_	41 behaved	advmod
44	to	to	ADP	_	46 brother	case
45	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	46 brother	nmod:poss
46	brother	brother	NOUN	Number=Sing	41 behaved	obl
47	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	49 think	nsubj
48	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	49 think	aux
49	think	think	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	41 behaved	conj
50	of	of	ADP	_	52 lie	case
51	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	52 lie	det
52	lie	lie	NOUN	Number=Sing	49 think	obl
53	,	,	PUNCT	_	55 confessed	punct
54	but	but	CCONJ	_	55 confessed	cc
55	confessed	confess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 turned	conj
56	at	at	ADP	_	57 once	case
57	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	55 confessed	obl
58	that	that	SCONJ	_	61 slain	mark
59	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	61 slain	nsubj
60	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	61 slain	aux
61	slain	slay	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	55 confessed	ccomp
62	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	64 Prince	det
63	young	young	ADJ	Degree=Pos	64 Prince	amod
64	Prince	Prince	PROPN	Number=Sing	61 slain	obj
65	in	in	ADP	_	66 order	case
66	order	order	NOUN	Number=Sing	61 slain	obl
67	to	to	PART	_	68 obtain	mark
68	obtain	obtain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	61 slain	advcl
69	possession	possession	NOUN	Number=Sing	68 obtain	obj
70	of	of	ADP	_	73 horse	case
71	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	73 horse	det
72	golden	golden	ADJ	Degree=Pos	73 horse	amod
73	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	69 possession	nmod
74	and	and	CCONJ	_	77 bird	cc
75	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	77 bird	det
76	golden	golden	ADJ	Degree=Pos	77 bird	amod
77	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	69 possession	conj
78	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 turned	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	other	roles by
1	turn	past	sons = son				white property	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme
2	see	past	sons = son	sons's brother				vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer brother=Stimulus
3	think speech: other	past	sons = son	sons's brother				vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent whom=Attribute clause=Theme
4	murder	past · perfect	sons = son					vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
5	stand	gerund	sons = son not said here				beside sons = son; alive property	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent beside they=Location
6	startle	past	sons = son not said here					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer
7	is a	past	sons = son	that				tree rules
8	ask speech: ask	past	the King		sons = son			vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent they=Recipient
9	behave	past · perfect	sons = son				to sons's brother; wickedly property	vn masquerade-29.6-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Agent
10	think speech: other	could	sons = son				of no lie	vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
11	confess	past	sons = son not said here					vn confess-37.10 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
12	slay	past · perfect	sons = son	the young Prince		order		vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent prince=Patient
13	obtain	to-infinitive	sons = son not said here	possession of the golden horse and the golden bird				vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset possession=Theme
14	possess			the golden horse				nom possession «act transitive»: of=patient

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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