Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains, Legends and Tales., part 8, sentence 39
In the distance one could see during the night, especially at midnight, now fiery balls, now flames of fire rising in the air, and could hear death cries, or the most delightful tones, which the evil spirits employed to decoy unwary mortals to destruction.
Who acts: fire, delightful tones · What happens: see, rise, hear, spirit, employ, decoy · To what, where: air, death cries, evil spirits, unwary mortals
This is a sentence of «Legends and tales of the Harz Mountains» by Toofie Lauder, Legends and Tales., part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fire, delightful tones), 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 | In | in | ADP | _ | 4 one | case |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 one | det |
| 3 | distance | distance | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 one | compound |
| 4 | one | one | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 see | obl |
| 5 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 6 see | aux |
| 6 | see | see | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 7 | during | during | ADP | _ | 9 night | case |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 9 night | det |
| 9 | night | night | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 see | obl |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 midnight | punct |
| 11 | especially | especially | ADV | _ | 13 midnight | advmod |
| 12 | at | at | ADP | _ | 13 midnight | case |
| 13 | midnight | midnight | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 see | obl |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 balls | punct |
| 15 | now | now | ADV | PronType=Dem | 17 balls | advmod |
| 16 | fiery | fiery | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 17 balls | amod |
| 17 | balls | ball | NOUN | Number=Plur | 13 midnight | appos |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 flames | punct |
| 19 | now | now | ADV | PronType=Dem | 20 flames | advmod |
| 20 | flames | flame | NOUN | Number=Plur | 17 balls | conj |
| 21 | of | of | ADP | _ | 22 fire | case |
| 22 | fire | fire | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 flames | nmod |
| 23 | rising | rise | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 22 fire | acl |
| 24 | in | in | ADP | _ | 26 air | case |
| 25 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 26 air | det |
| 26 | air | air | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 rising | obl |
| 27 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 30 hear | punct |
| 28 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 30 hear | cc |
| 29 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 30 hear | aux |
| 30 | hear | hear | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | 6 see | conj |
| 31 | death | death | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 cries | compound |
| 32 | cries | cry | NOUN | Number=Plur | 30 hear | obj |
| 33 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 38 tones | punct |
| 34 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 38 tones | cc |
| 35 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 38 tones | det |
| 36 | most | most | ADV | Degree=Sup | 37 delightful | advmod |
| 37 | delightful | delightful | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 38 tones | amod |
| 38 | tones | tone | NOUN | Number=Plur | 32 cries | nmod |
| 39 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 43 spirits | punct |
| 40 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 43 spirits | nsubj |
| 41 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 43 spirits | det |
| 42 | evil | evil | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 43 spirits | amod |
| 43 | spirits | spirit | NOUN | Number=Plur | 38 tones | conj |
| 44 | employed | employ | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 43 spirits | acl |
| 45 | to | to | PART | _ | 46 decoy | mark |
| 46 | decoy | decoy | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 44 employed | xcomp |
| 47 | unwary | unwary | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 48 mortals | amod |
| 48 | mortals | mortal | NOUN | Number=Plur | 46 decoy | obj |
| 49 | to | to | ADP | _ | 50 destruction | case |
| 50 | destruction | destruction | NOUN | Number=Sing | 46 decoy | obl |
| 51 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 6 see | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | see | could | midnight; night | in the distance one | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | ||||
| 2 | rise | gerund | fire not said here | the air | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in air=Location | ||||
| 3 | hear | could | death cries the delightful tones and the evil spirits | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer cry=Stimulus | |||||
| 4 | spirit | the delightful tones and the evil spirits | tree rules | ||||||
| 5 | employ | participle | the evil spirits not said here | vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Agent clause=Attribute | |||||
| 6 | decoy | to-infinitive | unwary mortals | to destruction | tree rules | ||||
| 7 | flame | fire | nom flame «process intransitive»: of=agent |
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/pg74323/9/39/