Folk tales from Tibet, The Story of the Tortoise and the Monkey., sentence 4
He made several awkward attempts to climb the tree, but the stem was so straight and so smooth that he was quite unable to succeed; and he was just about to give up the attempt in despair when he espied a large Monkey sitting among the branches.
Who acts: Tortoise, stem, large Monkey · What happens: make, climb, be, succeed, espy, sit · To what, where: several awkward attempts, tree, large Monkey, branches
This is a sentence of «Folk tales from Tibet» by William Frederick Travers, Sir O'Connor, The Story of the Tortoise and the Monkey.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Tortoise, stem, large Monkey), 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 | He | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 made | nsubj |
| 2 | made | make | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | several | several | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 attempts | amod |
| 4 | awkward | awkward | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 attempts | amod |
| 5 | attempts | attempt | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 made | obj |
| 6 | to | to | PART | _ | 7 climb | mark |
| 7 | climb | climb | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 2 made | advcl |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 9 tree | det |
| 9 | tree | tree | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 climb | obj |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 smooth | punct |
| 11 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 19 smooth | cc |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 13 stem | det |
| 13 | stem | stem | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 smooth | nsubj |
| 14 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 19 smooth | cop |
| 15 | so | so | ADV | _ | 16 straight | advmod |
| 16 | straight | straight | ADV | _ | 19 smooth | advmod |
| 17 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 19 smooth | cc |
| 18 | so | so | ADV | _ | 19 smooth | advmod |
| 19 | smooth | smooth | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 2 made | parataxis |
| 20 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 24 unable | mark |
| 21 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 24 unable | nsubj |
| 22 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 24 unable | cop |
| 23 | quite | quite | ADV | _ | 24 unable | advmod |
| 24 | unable | unable | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 19 smooth | advcl |
| 25 | to | to | PART | _ | 26 succeed | mark |
| 26 | succeed | succeed | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 24 unable | xcomp |
| 27 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 34 give | punct |
| 28 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 34 give | cc |
| 29 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 34 give | nsubj |
| 30 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 34 give | cop |
| 31 | just | just | ADV | _ | 32 about | advmod |
| 32 | about | about | ADV | _ | 34 give | advmod |
| 33 | to | to | PART | _ | 34 give | mark |
| 34 | give | give | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 2 made | parataxis |
| 35 | up | up | ADP | _ | 34 give | compound:prt |
| 36 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 37 attempt | det |
| 37 | attempt | attempt | NOUN | Number=Sing | 34 give | obj |
| 38 | in | in | ADP | _ | 39 despair | case |
| 39 | despair | despair | NOUN | Number=Sing | 37 attempt | nmod |
| 40 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 42 espied | advmod |
| 41 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 42 espied | nsubj |
| 42 | espied | espy | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 37 attempt | acl:relcl |
| 43 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 45 Monkey | det |
| 44 | large | large | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 45 Monkey | amod |
| 45 | Monkey | monkey | NOUN | Number=Sing | 42 espied | obj |
| 46 | sitting | sit | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 45 Monkey | acl |
| 47 | among | among | ADP | _ | 49 branches | case |
| 48 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 49 branches | det |
| 49 | branches | branch | NOUN | Number=Plur | 46 sitting | obl |
| 50 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 made | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | make | past | Tortoise | several awkward attempts | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent attempt=Product | ||||
| 2 | climb | to-infinitive | Tortoise not said here | the tree | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial_Location tree=Theme | ||||
| 3 | is | past | the stem | smooth, straight property | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | is | past | Tortoise | unable property | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | succeed | to-infinitive | Tortoise not said here | vn succeed-74-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 6 | is | past | Tortoise | the attempt obj; about, give property | tree rules | ||||
| 7 | espy | past | Tortoise | a large Monkey | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer monkey=Stimulus | ||||
| 8 | sit | gerund | a large Monkey not said here | the branches | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent among branch=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/pg75000/21/4/