The grateful elephant, Opening, part 3, sentence 81
Ministers reported this fact to the queen, saying: “We fear that if the force continues thus to give way, we shall lose the battle.
Who acts: Ministers, We, force · What happens: report, say, fear, continue, give, lose · To what, where: fact, queen, way, battle · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «The grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Opening, part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Ministers, We, force), 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 | Ministers | minister | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 reported | nsubj |
| 2 | reported | report | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | this | this | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 4 fact | det |
| 4 | fact | fact | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 reported | obj |
| 5 | to | to | ADP | _ | 7 queen | case |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 queen | det |
| 7 | queen | queen | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 fact | nmod |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 9 saying | punct |
| 9 | saying | say | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 2 reported | advcl |
| 10 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 13 fear | punct |
| 11 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 13 fear | punct |
| 12 | We | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 13 fear | nsubj |
| 13 | fear | fear | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 9 saying | conj |
| 14 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 26 lose | mark |
| 15 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 18 continues | mark |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 force | det |
| 17 | force | force | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 continues | nsubj |
| 18 | continues | continue | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 26 lose | advcl |
| 19 | thus | thus | ADV | _ | 18 continues | advmod |
| 20 | to | to | PART | _ | 21 give | mark |
| 21 | give | give | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 18 continues | xcomp |
| 22 | way | way | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 give | obj |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 continues | punct |
| 24 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 26 lose | nsubj |
| 25 | shall | shall | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 26 lose | aux |
| 26 | lose | lose | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 13 fear | advcl |
| 27 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 28 battle | det |
| 28 | battle | battle | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 lose | obj |
| 29 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 reported | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | report | past | Ministers | this fact | the queen | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent fact=Topic to queen=Recipient | |||
| 2 | say speech: assert | gerund | Ministers not said here | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 3 | fear in a quote | present | We | vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | |||||
| 4 | continue in a quote | present | the force | thus property | vn continue-55.3 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | ||||
| 5 | give in a quote | to-infinitive | the force not said here | way | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Theme | ||||
| 6 | lose in a quote | shall | we | the battle | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent battle=Eventuality |
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 grateful elephant» by Eugene Watson Burlingame, Project Gutenberg book 74064 (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/pg74064/3/81/