Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains, Legends and Tales., part 14, sentence 72
Then an ugly sea-cat threw itself down from some tree, with its winding tail twisted around some branch, ground the teeth with a horrid grin, and sprang back into the thick foliage.
Who acts: ugly sea cat, winding tail · What happens: throw down, twist, spring back · To what, where: cat, tree, teeth, branch, thick foliage
This is a sentence of «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, Legends and Tales., part 14. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ugly sea cat, winding tail), 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 | Then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 7 threw | advmod |
| 2 | an | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 6 cat | det |
| 3 | ugly | ugly | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 cat | amod |
| 4 | sea | sea | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 cat | compound |
| 5 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 4 sea | punct |
| 6 | cat | cat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 threw | nsubj |
| 7 | threw | throw | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 8 | itself | itself | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes | 7 threw | obj |
| 9 | down | down | ADP | _ | 7 threw | compound:prt |
| 10 | from | from | ADP | _ | 12 tree | case |
| 11 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 12 tree | det |
| 12 | tree | tree | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 threw | obl |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 tail | punct |
| 14 | with | with | ADP | _ | 17 tail | case |
| 15 | its | its | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 17 tail | nmod:poss |
| 16 | winding | winding | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 tail | compound |
| 17 | tail | tail | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 threw | conj |
| 18 | twisted | twist | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 17 tail | acl |
| 19 | around | around | ADP | _ | 21 branch | case |
| 20 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 21 branch | det |
| 21 | branch | branch | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 twisted | obl |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 23 ground | punct |
| 23 | ground | ground | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 branch | conj |
| 24 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 25 teeth | det |
| 25 | teeth | tooth | NOUN | Number=Plur | 18 twisted | obl |
| 26 | with | with | ADP | _ | 29 grin | case |
| 27 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 29 grin | det |
| 28 | horrid | horrid | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 29 grin | amod |
| 29 | grin | grin | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 twisted | obl |
| 30 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 32 sprang | punct |
| 31 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 32 sprang | cc |
| 32 | sprang | spring | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 threw | conj |
| 33 | back | back | ADV | _ | 32 sprang | advmod |
| 34 | into | into | ADP | _ | 37 foliage | case |
| 35 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 37 foliage | det |
| 36 | thick | thick | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 37 foliage | amod |
| 37 | foliage | foliage | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 sprang | obl |
| 38 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 7 threw | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | throw down | past | a ugly sea cat | cat | some tree | then | cat's winding tail conj | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.initial_location»: agent=Agent itself=Theme from tree=Initial_Location | |
| 2 | twist | participle | cat's winding tail not said here | the teeth | some branch and ground | with a horrid grin | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme around branch=Trajectory | ||
| 3 | spring back | past | a ugly sea cat not said here | the thick foliage | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into foliage=Destination |
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: «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, Project Gutenberg book 74323 (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/pg74323/15/72/