Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains, A Historical Tale., part 5, sentence 82
And lo! scarcely were the words uttered, when a hissing flash of lightning, like a fiery serpent, pierced the castle, a fearful clap of thunder followed, the earth opened, the castle sank in the hidden deeps, and was seen no more.
Who acts: words, earth, castle, lightning · What happens: be, utter, hiss, pierce, follow, open · To what, where: words, hissing flash, thunder, hidden deeps, more
This is a sentence of «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, A Historical Tale., part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (words, earth, castle, lightning), 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 | And | and | CCONJ | _ | 8 uttered | cc |
| 2 | lo | lo | INTJ | _ | 8 uttered | discourse |
| 3 | ! | ! | PUNCT | _ | 2 lo | punct |
| 4 | scarcely | scarcely | ADV | _ | 7 words | advmod |
| 5 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 words | cop |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 words | det |
| 7 | words | word | NOUN | Number=Plur | 8 uttered | nsubj |
| 8 | uttered | utter | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 22 pierced | punct |
| 10 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 22 pierced | advmod |
| 11 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 13 flash | det |
| 12 | hissing | hiss | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 13 flash | amod |
| 13 | flash | flash | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 pierced | nsubj:pass |
| 14 | of | of | ADP | _ | 15 lightning | case |
| 15 | lightning | lightning | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 flash | nmod |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 serpent | punct |
| 17 | like | like | ADP | _ | 20 serpent | case |
| 18 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 20 serpent | det |
| 19 | fiery | fiery | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 20 serpent | amod |
| 20 | serpent | serpent | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 flash | conj |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 22 pierced | punct |
| 22 | pierced | pierce | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 8 uttered | conj |
| 23 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 24 castle | det |
| 24 | castle | castle | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 pierced | obj |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 clap | punct |
| 26 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 28 clap | det |
| 27 | fearful | fearful | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 28 clap | amod |
| 28 | clap | clap | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 castle | conj |
| 29 | of | of | ADP | _ | 30 thunder | case |
| 30 | thunder | thunder | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 clap | nmod |
| 31 | followed | follow | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 30 thunder | acl |
| 32 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 35 opened | punct |
| 33 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 34 earth | det |
| 34 | earth | earth | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 opened | nsubj |
| 35 | opened | open | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 22 pierced | parataxis |
| 36 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 39 sank | punct |
| 37 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 38 castle | det |
| 38 | castle | castle | NOUN | Number=Sing | 39 sank | nsubj |
| 39 | sank | sink | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 35 opened | advcl |
| 40 | in | in | ADP | _ | 43 deeps | case |
| 41 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 43 deeps | det |
| 42 | hidden | hidden | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 43 deeps | amod |
| 43 | deeps | deep | NOUN | Number=Plur | 39 sank | obl |
| 44 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 47 seen | punct |
| 45 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 47 seen | cc |
| 46 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 47 seen | aux:pass |
| 47 | seen | see | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 8 uttered | advcl |
| 48 | no | no | ADV | _ | 49 more | advmod |
| 49 | more | more | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 47 seen | obj |
| 50 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 uttered | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | past | the words | scarcely property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | utter speech: other | past | the words | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 3 | hiss | gerund | vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||||
| 4 | pierce | participle · passive | a hissing flash of lightning and a fiery serpent | the castle and a fearful clap of thunder obj | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | follow | participle | thunder not said here | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 6 | open | past | the earth | vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 7 | sink | past | the castle | the hidden deeps | vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient | ||||
| 8 | see | past · passive | the words not said here | more | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: more=Stimulus | ||||
| 9 | flash | lightning | nom flash «event intransitive»: of=agent | ||||||
| 10 | clap | thunder | nom clap «event transitive»: of=patient |
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/pg74323/22/82/