Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XII. the Marten and the White Rabbit, sentence 12
He could not understand why the white rabbit should think himself any better than a marten.
Who acts: marten, white rabbit · What happens: not understand, think · To what, where: marten · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XII. the Marten and the White Rabbit. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (marten, white rabbit), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.
Mova's own parse. This tree may be wrong.
The tree
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | He | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 understand | nsubj |
| 2 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 4 understand | aux |
| 3 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 4 understand | advmod |
| 4 | understand | understand | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 5 | why | why | ADV | PronType=Int | 10 think | advmod |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 rabbit | det |
| 7 | white | white | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 rabbit | amod |
| 8 | rabbit | rabbit | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 think | nsubj |
| 9 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 10 think | aux |
| 10 | think | think | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 understand | ccomp |
| 11 | himself | himself | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes | 10 think | obj |
| 12 | any | any | ADV | _ | 13 better | advmod |
| 13 | better | good | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 10 think | ccomp |
| 14 | than | than | ADP | _ | 16 marten | case |
| 15 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 16 marten | det |
| 16 | marten | marten | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 better | obl |
| 17 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 understand | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not understand | could | marten | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | |||||
| 2 | think speech: other | should | the white rabbit | marten | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot himself=Theme |
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: «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, Project Gutenberg book 73136 (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/pg73136/81/12/