The Green Fairy Book, The Story of Caliph Stork, sentence 101
‘My Lord and master,’ he whispered, ‘if it were not absurd for a Grand Vizier, and still more for a stork, to be afraid of ghosts, I should feel quite nervous, for someone, or something close by me, has sighed and moaned quite audibly.’
Who acts: Lord, master, I · What happens: whisper, not be, be, feel, sigh, moan · To what, where: more
This is a sentence of «The Green Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Story of Caliph Stork. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Lord, master, I), 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 Lord | punct |
| 2 | My | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 3 Lord | nmod:poss |
| 3 | Lord | Lord | PROPN | Number=Sing | 9 whispered | nsubj |
| 4 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 5 master | cc |
| 5 | master | master | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 Lord | conj |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 Lord | punct |
| 7 | ’ | ' | PUNCT | _ | 3 Lord | punct |
| 8 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 9 whispered | nsubj |
| 9 | whispered | whisper | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 absurd | punct |
| 11 | ‘ | ' | PUNCT | _ | 16 absurd | punct |
| 12 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 16 absurd | mark |
| 13 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 absurd | nsubj |
| 14 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 16 absurd | cop |
| 15 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 16 absurd | advmod |
| 16 | absurd | absurd | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 9 whispered | ccomp |
| 17 | for | for | ADP | _ | 20 Vizier | case |
| 18 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 20 Vizier | det |
| 19 | Grand | grand | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 20 Vizier | amod |
| 20 | Vizier | Vizier | PROPN | Number=Sing | 16 absurd | obl |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 more | punct |
| 22 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 24 more | cc |
| 23 | still | still | ADV | _ | 24 more | advmod |
| 24 | more | more | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 9 whispered | obj |
| 25 | for | for | ADP | _ | 27 stork | case |
| 26 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 27 stork | det |
| 27 | stork | stork | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 more | obl |
| 28 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 31 afraid | punct |
| 29 | to | to | PART | _ | 31 afraid | mark |
| 30 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 31 afraid | cop |
| 31 | afraid | afraid | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 9 whispered | parataxis |
| 32 | of | of | ADP | _ | 33 ghosts | case |
| 33 | ghosts | ghost | NOUN | Number=Plur | 31 afraid | obl |
| 34 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 37 feel | punct |
| 35 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 37 feel | nsubj |
| 36 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 37 feel | aux |
| 37 | feel | feel | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 31 afraid | parataxis |
| 38 | quite | quite | ADV | _ | 39 nervous | advmod |
| 39 | nervous | nervous | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 37 feel | xcomp |
| 40 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 42 someone | punct |
| 41 | for | for | ADP | _ | 42 someone | case |
| 42 | someone | someone | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Ind | 37 feel | obl |
| 43 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 45 something | punct |
| 44 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 45 something | cc |
| 45 | something | something | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Ind | 42 someone | appos |
| 46 | close | close | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 45 something | amod |
| 47 | by | by | ADP | _ | 48 me | case |
| 48 | me | I | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 46 close | obl |
| 49 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 51 sighed | punct |
| 50 | has | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 51 sighed | aux |
| 51 | sighed | sigh | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 37 feel | parataxis |
| 52 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 53 moaned | cc |
| 53 | moaned | moan | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 51 sighed | conj |
| 54 | quite | quite | ADV | _ | 55 audibly | advmod |
| 55 | audibly | audibly | ADV | _ | 53 moaned | advmod |
| 56 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 9 whispered | punct |
| 57 | ’ | ' | PUNCT | _ | 9 whispered | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | whisper speech: assert | past | My Lord and master | more | vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent more=Topic | ||||
| 2 | not is a condition, not said to happen | past | master | for a Grand Vizier; absurd property | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | is | to-infinitive | of ghosts; afraid property | tree rules | |||||
| 4 | feel | should | I | for someone; nervous property | vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus | ||||
| 5 | sigh | present · perfect | vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||||
| 6 | moan | participle | audibly property | vn animal_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=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/pg7277/7/101/