English Fairy Tales, Fairy Ointment, sentence 29

But she couldn't finish what she was a-saying, for the funny old fellow started back in surprise, and he says to her, says he: “What! do you see me today?”

Who acts: Dame, funny old fellow, fellow · What happens: not finish, be, start back, say, see · To what, where: surprise, Dame, fellow · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Fairy Ointment. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Dame, funny old fellow, fellow), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher. This tree is Mova's own parse (the en model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

The tree

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	But	but	CCONJ	_	5 finish	cc
2	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 finish	nsubj
3	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 finish	aux
4	n't	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 finish	advmod
5	finish	finish	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	11 saying	obj
7	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 saying	nsubj
8	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 saying	cop
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 saying	det
10	-	-	PUNCT	_	9 a	punct
11	saying	say	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 finish	ccomp
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 started	punct
13	for	for	SCONJ	_	18 started	mark
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 fellow	det
15	funny	funny	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 fellow	amod
16	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 fellow	amod
17	fellow	fellow	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 started	nsubj
18	started	start	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 finish	conj
19	back	back	ADV	_	18 started	advmod
20	in	in	ADP	_	21 surprise	case
21	surprise	surprise	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 started	obl
22	,	,	PUNCT	_	25 says	punct
23	and	and	CCONJ	_	25 says	cc
24	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	25 says	nsubj
25	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 finish	parataxis
26	to	to	ADP	_	27 her	case
27	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	25 says	obl
28	,	,	PUNCT	_	29 says	punct
29	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	25 says	conj
30	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	37 see	nsubj
31	:	:	PUNCT	_	30 he	punct
32	“	"	PUNCT	_	37 see	punct
33	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	37 see	obj
34	!	!	PUNCT	_	33 What	punct
35	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	37 see	aux
36	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	37 see	nsubj
37	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	29 says	ccomp
38	me	I	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	37 see	obj
39	today	today	NOUN	Number=Sing	37 see	obl:unmarked
40	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 finish	punct
41	”	"	PUNCT	_	5 finish	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not finish	could	Dame						vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality
2	is	past	Dame					say property	tree rules
3	start back	past	the funny old fellow			surprise			vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality
4	say speech: assert	present	fellow		Dame				vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to she=Recipient
5	say speech: ask	present	fellow not said here						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
6	see in a quote	present · do-support	fellow	fellow			today		tree rules

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: «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7439 (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/pg7439/46/29/