The Green Fairy Book, The Golden Mermaid, sentence 17
‘There lives,’ he said, ‘in a neighbouring country, a mighty emperor who has a beautiful golden bird in a cage, and this is the creature who steals the golden apples, but it flies so fast that it is impossible to catch it at its theft.
Who acts: lives, mighty emperor, this, creature, thief · What happens: say, neighbour, have, be, steal, fly · To what, where: beautiful golden bird, cage, creature, golden apples, thief, theft · 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 (lives, mighty emperor, this, 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 | ‘ | ' | PUNCT | _ | 3 lives | punct |
| 2 | There | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 3 lives | expl |
| 3 | lives | life | NOUN | Number=Plur | 7 said | nsubj |
| 4 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 lives | punct |
| 5 | ’ | ' | PUNCT | _ | 3 lives | punct |
| 6 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 7 said | nsubj |
| 7 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 9 ‘ | punct |
| 9 | ‘ | ‘ | PUNCT | _ | 7 said | ccomp |
| 10 | in | in | ADP | _ | 13 country | case |
| 11 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 13 country | det |
| 12 | neighbouring | neighbour | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 13 country | amod |
| 13 | country | country | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 ‘ | obl |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 emperor | punct |
| 15 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 17 emperor | det |
| 16 | mighty | mighty | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 17 emperor | amod |
| 17 | emperor | emperor | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 country | appos |
| 18 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 19 has | nsubj |
| 19 | has | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 17 emperor | acl:relcl |
| 20 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 23 bird | det |
| 21 | beautiful | beautiful | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 23 bird | amod |
| 22 | golden | golden | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 23 bird | amod |
| 23 | bird | bird | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 has | obj |
| 24 | in | in | ADP | _ | 26 cage | case |
| 25 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 26 cage | det |
| 26 | cage | cage | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 bird | nmod |
| 27 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 32 creature | punct |
| 28 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 32 creature | cc |
| 29 | this | this | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 32 creature | nsubj |
| 30 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 32 creature | cop |
| 31 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 32 creature | det |
| 32 | creature | creature | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 has | parataxis |
| 33 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 34 steals | nsubj |
| 34 | steals | steal | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 32 creature | acl:relcl |
| 35 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 37 apples | det |
| 36 | golden | golden | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 37 apples | amod |
| 37 | apples | apple | NOUN | Number=Plur | 34 steals | obj |
| 38 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 41 flies | punct |
| 39 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 41 flies | cc |
| 40 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 41 flies | nsubj |
| 41 | flies | fly | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 19 has | conj |
| 42 | so | so | ADV | _ | 43 fast | advmod |
| 43 | fast | fast | ADV | Degree=Pos | 41 flies | advmod |
| 44 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 47 impossible | mark |
| 45 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 47 impossible | expl |
| 46 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 47 impossible | cop |
| 47 | impossible | impossible | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 41 flies | advcl |
| 48 | to | to | PART | _ | 49 catch | mark |
| 49 | catch | catch | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 47 impossible | csubj |
| 50 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 49 catch | obj |
| 51 | at | at | ADP | _ | 53 theft | case |
| 52 | its | its | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 53 theft | nmod:poss |
| 53 | theft | theft | NOUN | Number=Sing | 49 catch | obl |
| 54 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 7 said | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | past | lives | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 2 | neighbour | gerund | tree rules | ||||||
| 3 | have | present | a mighty emperor | a beautiful golden bird | a cage | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bird=Patient | |||
| 4 | is a | present | this | the creature | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | steal | present | the creature | the golden apples | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location apple=Theme | ||||
| 6 | fly | present | thief | fast property | vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 7 | is | present | thief not said here | impossible property | tree rules | ||||
| 8 | catch | to-infinitive | thief | thief's theft | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent it=Theme at theft=Asset |
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/pg7277/52/17/