Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of the Three Thieves., sentence 21
But such obstacles as these were nothing to me, and I had no difficulty in evading the watchers and abstracting the eggs from under the hen, without even disturbing her, or her being aware of the loss.
Who acts: such obstacles, I, difficulty · What happens: be, have, evade, abstract, disturb · To what, where: nothing, me, difficulty, watchers, eggs, China
This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of the Three Thieves.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (such obstacles, I, difficulty), 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 | But | but | CCONJ | _ | 7 nothing | cc |
| 2 | such | such | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 obstacles | amod |
| 3 | obstacles | obstacle | NOUN | Number=Plur | 7 nothing | nsubj |
| 4 | as | as | ADP | _ | 5 these | case |
| 5 | these | this | PRON | Number=Plur PronType=Dem | 3 obstacles | nmod |
| 6 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 nothing | cop |
| 7 | nothing | nothing | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Neg | root | root |
| 8 | to | to | ADP | _ | 9 me | case |
| 9 | me | I | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 7 nothing | nmod |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 had | punct |
| 11 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 13 had | cc |
| 12 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 13 had | nsubj |
| 13 | had | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 nothing | parataxis |
| 14 | no | no | DET | PronType=Neg | 15 difficulty | det |
| 15 | difficulty | difficulty | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 had | obj |
| 16 | in | in | SCONJ | _ | 17 evading | mark |
| 17 | evading | evade | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 15 difficulty | acl |
| 18 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 19 watchers | det |
| 19 | watchers | watcher | NOUN | Number=Plur | 17 evading | obj |
| 20 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 21 abstracting | cc |
| 21 | abstracting | abstract | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 17 evading | conj |
| 22 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 eggs | det |
| 23 | eggs | egg | NOUN | Number=Plur | 21 abstracting | obj |
| 24 | from | from | ADP | _ | 27 hen | case |
| 25 | under | under | ADP | _ | 27 hen | case |
| 26 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 27 hen | det |
| 27 | hen | hen | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 abstracting | obl |
| 28 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 31 disturbing | punct |
| 29 | without | without | SCONJ | _ | 31 disturbing | mark |
| 30 | even | even | ADV | _ | 31 disturbing | advmod |
| 31 | disturbing | disturb | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 17 evading | conj |
| 32 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 31 disturbing | obj |
| 33 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 37 aware | punct |
| 34 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 37 aware | cc |
| 35 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 37 aware | nmod:poss |
| 36 | being | be | AUX | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 37 aware | cop |
| 37 | aware | aware | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 13 had | conj |
| 38 | of | of | ADP | _ | 40 loss | case |
| 39 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 40 loss | det |
| 40 | loss | loss | NOUN | Number=Sing | 37 aware | obl |
| 41 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 7 nothing | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | past | such obstacles as these | nothing | me | tree rules | |||
| 2 | have | past | I | no difficulty | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent difficulty=Patient | ||||
| 3 | evade | gerund | no difficulty not said here | the watchers | vn avoid-52 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent watcher=Location | ||||
| 4 | abstract | gerund | no difficulty not said here | the eggs | from the hen | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent egg=Theme from hen=Initial_Location | |||
| 5 | disturb | gerund | no difficulty not said here | China | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus she=Experiencer | ||||
| 6 | is | gerund | I not said here | of the loss; China nmod:poss; aware property | 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: «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, Project Gutenberg book 75000 (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/pg75000/15/21/