The Green Fairy Book, The Golden Mermaid, sentence 2
But the King was never able to enjoy his treasure, for he might watch and guard them as he liked, as soon as they began to get ripe they were always stolen.
Who acts: King, treasures · What happens: not be, enjoy, watch, guard, like, begin · To what, where: treasure, treasures
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 (King, treasures), 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 | But | but | CCONJ | _ | 6 able | cc |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 King | det |
| 3 | King | King | PROPN | Number=Sing | 6 able | nsubj |
| 4 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 able | cop |
| 5 | never | never | ADV | PronType=Neg | 6 able | advmod |
| 6 | able | able | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 7 | to | to | PART | _ | 8 enjoy | mark |
| 8 | enjoy | enjoy | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 6 able | xcomp |
| 9 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 10 treasure | nmod:poss |
| 10 | treasure | treasure | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 enjoy | obj |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 watch | punct |
| 12 | for | for | SCONJ | _ | 15 watch | mark |
| 13 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 15 watch | nsubj |
| 14 | might | might | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 15 watch | aux |
| 15 | watch | watch | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 8 enjoy | parataxis |
| 16 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 guard | cc |
| 17 | guard | guard | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 15 watch | conj |
| 18 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 17 guard | obj |
| 19 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 21 liked | mark |
| 20 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 21 liked | nsubj |
| 21 | liked | like | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 17 guard | advcl |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 27 began | punct |
| 23 | as | as | ADV | _ | 24 soon | advmod |
| 24 | soon | soon | ADV | Degree=Pos | 27 began | advmod |
| 25 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 27 began | mark |
| 26 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 27 began | nsubj |
| 27 | began | begin | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 21 liked | conj |
| 28 | to | to | PART | _ | 29 get | mark |
| 29 | get | get | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 27 began | xcomp |
| 30 | ripe | ripe | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 29 get | xcomp |
| 31 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 34 stolen | nsubj:pass |
| 32 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 34 stolen | aux:pass |
| 33 | always | always | ADV | PronType=Tot | 34 stolen | advmod |
| 34 | stolen | steal | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 30 ripe | ccomp |
| 35 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 6 able | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not is | past | the King | able property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | enjoy | to-infinitive | the King not said here | king's treasure | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer treasure=Stimulus | ||||
| 3 | watch | might | king | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 4 | guard | infinitive | king not said here | treasures = treasure | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Beneficiary | ||||
| 5 | like | past | king | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot | |||||
| 6 | begin | past | treasures = treasure | soon property | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | ||||
| 7 | get | to-infinitive | treasures = treasure not said here | ripe property | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer | ||||
| 8 | steal | past · passive | treasures = treasure | always property | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme | ||||
| 9 | treasure | king | nom treasure «possession 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/pg7277/52/2/