Folk tales from Tibet, The Country of the Mice., sentence 50

Some nibbled at the bowstrings and the slings of the soldiers’ muskets; others gnawed the slow-match and fuses; whilst others bit off the clothes and pigtails of the sleeping men.

Who acts: others · What happens: nibble, gnaw, fuse, bite off · To what, where: Some, bowstrings, slow match, clothes

This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Country of the Mice.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (others), 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	Some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	2 nibbled	nsubj:pass
2	nibbled	nibble	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
3	at	at	ADP	_	5 bowstrings	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 bowstrings	det
5	bowstrings	bowstring	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 nibbled	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 slings	cc
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 slings	det
8	slings	sling	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 bowstrings	conj
9	of	of	ADP	_	13 muskets	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 soldiers	det
11	soldiers	soldier	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 muskets	nmod:poss
12	’	's	PART	_	11 soldiers	case
13	muskets	musket	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 slings	nmod
14	;	;	PUNCT	_	16 gnawed	punct
15	others	other	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 gnawed	nsubj
16	gnawed	gnaw	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 nibbled	parataxis
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 match	det
18	slow	slow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	20 match	amod
19	-	-	PUNCT	_	18 slow	punct
20	match	match	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 gnawed	obj
21	and	and	CCONJ	_	22 fuses	cc
22	fuses	fuse	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	20 match	conj
23	;	;	PUNCT	_	26 bit	punct
24	whilst	whilst	SCONJ	_	26 bit	mark
25	others	other	NOUN	Number=Plur	26 bit	nsubj
26	bit	bite	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	16 gnawed	conj
27	off	off	ADP	_	29 clothes	case
28	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	29 clothes	det
29	clothes	clothes	NOUN	Number=Ptan	26 bit	obl
30	and	and	CCONJ	_	31 pigtails	cc
31	pigtails	pigtail	NOUN	Number=Plur	29 clothes	conj
32	of	of	ADP	_	35 men	case
33	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	35 men	det
34	sleeping	sleeping	NOUN	Number=Sing	35 men	compound
35	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	31 pigtails	nmod
36	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 nibbled	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	nibble	participle · passive		Some	the bowstrings and the slings of the soldiers's muskets	vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient
2	gnaw	past	others	the slow match		vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent match=Patient
3	fuse	present	others not said here			vn mix-22.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient
4	bite off	past	others	the clothes and pigtails of the sleeping men		vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent clothes=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: «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/pg75000/20/50/

🌲 Folk tales from Tibet, The Country of the Mice., sentence 50

The tree

Pragmatics

Folk tales from Tibet, The Country of the Mice., sentence 50