Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains, A Historical Tale., part 7, sentence 72
The shepherds approached the corner where they were scraping and pawing, and looked attentively at the hole growing every moment larger and deeper in the ground, and soon a sheet-iron chest became visible.
Who acts: shepherds, hole, iron chest · What happens: approach, scrape, paw, look, grow, become · To what, where: corner
This is a sentence of «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, A Historical Tale., part 7. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (shepherds, hole, iron chest), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 shepherds | det |
| 2 | shepherds | shepherd | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 approached | nsubj |
| 3 | approached | approach | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 corner | det |
| 5 | corner | corner | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 approached | obj |
| 6 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 9 scraping | advmod |
| 7 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 9 scraping | nsubj |
| 8 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 scraping | aux |
| 9 | scraping | scrape | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 5 corner | acl:relcl |
| 10 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 11 pawing | cc |
| 11 | pawing | paw | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 9 scraping | conj |
| 12 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 looked | punct |
| 13 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 14 looked | cc |
| 14 | looked | look | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 approached | conj |
| 15 | attentively | attentively | ADV | _ | 14 looked | advmod |
| 16 | at | at | ADP | _ | 18 hole | case |
| 17 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 18 hole | det |
| 18 | hole | hole | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 looked | obl |
| 19 | growing | grow | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 18 hole | acl |
| 20 | every | every | DET | PronType=Tot | 21 moment | det |
| 21 | moment | moment | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 growing | obj |
| 22 | larger | large | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 21 moment | amod |
| 23 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 24 deeper | cc |
| 24 | deeper | deep | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 22 larger | conj |
| 25 | in | in | ADP | _ | 27 ground | case |
| 26 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 27 ground | det |
| 27 | ground | ground | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 deeper | obl |
| 28 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 36 became | punct |
| 29 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 36 became | cc |
| 30 | soon | soon | ADV | Degree=Pos | 36 became | advmod |
| 31 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 35 chest | det |
| 32 | sheet | sheet | NOUN | Number=Sing | 34 iron | compound |
| 33 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 32 sheet | punct |
| 34 | iron | iron | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 chest | compound |
| 35 | chest | chest | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 became | nsubj |
| 36 | became | become | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 approached | conj |
| 37 | visible | visible | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 36 became | xcomp |
| 38 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 approached | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | approach | past | the shepherds | the corner | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent corner=Theme | ||||
| 2 | scrape | past · progressive | Shepherds = shepherd | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient | |||||
| 3 | paw | gerund | Shepherds = shepherd not said here | vn rummage-35.5-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 4 | look | past | the shepherds not said here | at the hole; attentively property | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at hole=Theme | ||||
| 5 | grow | gerund | the hole not said here | moment | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 6 | become | past | a iron chest | soon, visible property | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=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/pg74323/24/72/