Folk tales from Tibet, The Prince and the Ogre’s Castle., sentence 31
Scarcely had the bundle touched the ground when it became transformed into three great wolves, who, leaping upon the goat, devoured it in an instant, and then fled away to the hills.
Who acts: Scarcely, bundle, three great wolves · What happens: have, touch, become, transform, leap, devour · To what, where: ground, three great wolves, bundle, instant, hills
This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Prince and the Ogre’s Castle.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Scarcely, bundle, three great wolves), 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 | Scarcely | Scarcely | PROPN | Number=Sing | 2 had | nsubj |
| 2 | had | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 bundle | det |
| 4 | bundle | bundle | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 touched | nsubj |
| 5 | touched | touch | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 had | ccomp |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 ground | det |
| 7 | ground | ground | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 touched | obj |
| 8 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 10 became | advmod |
| 9 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 10 became | nsubj |
| 10 | became | become | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 touched | parataxis |
| 11 | transformed | transform | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 10 became | xcomp |
| 12 | into | into | ADP | _ | 15 wolves | case |
| 13 | three | three | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 15 wolves | nummod |
| 14 | great | great | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 15 wolves | amod |
| 15 | wolves | wolf | NOUN | Number=Plur | 11 transformed | obl |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 leaping | punct |
| 17 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 19 leaping | nsubj |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 leaping | punct |
| 19 | leaping | leap | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 15 wolves | acl |
| 20 | upon | upon | ADP | _ | 22 goat | case |
| 21 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 22 goat | det |
| 22 | goat | goat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 leaping | obl |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 devoured | punct |
| 24 | devoured | devour | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 touched | conj |
| 25 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 24 devoured | obj |
| 26 | in | in | ADP | _ | 28 instant | case |
| 27 | an | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 28 instant | det |
| 28 | instant | instant | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 devoured | obl |
| 29 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 32 fled | punct |
| 30 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 32 fled | cc |
| 31 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 32 fled | advmod |
| 32 | fled | flee | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 had | conj |
| 33 | away | away | ADV | _ | 32 fled | advmod |
| 34 | to | to | ADP | _ | 36 hills | case |
| 35 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 36 hills | det |
| 36 | hills | hill | NOUN | Number=Plur | 32 fled | obl |
| 37 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 had | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | have | past | Scarcely | tree rules | |||||
| 2 | touch | past | the bundle | the ground | vn contiguous_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme ground=Co-Theme | ||||
| 3 | become | past | bundle | tree rules | |||||
| 4 | transform | participle | bundle not said here | into three great wolves result | vn turn-26.6.1 «NP.patient V PP.result»: agent=Patient into wolf=Result | ||||
| 5 | leap | gerund | three great wolves | upon the goat | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon goat=Trajectory | ||||
| 6 | devour | past | the bundle not said here | bundle | a instant | vn devour-39.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient | |||
| 7 | flee away | past | Scarcely not said here | the hills | then | away property | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to hill=Initial_Location |
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/pg75000/17/31/