Gleanings from Chinese folklore, Miss Russell’s Funeral Service, sentence 21
The casket with its covering of beautiful vines and white flowers, roses, day lilies, tuberoses, spirea, stood in front of the altar and was carried by the friends to the grave, where loving hands had arranged the beautiful wild date branches and vines as a lining.
Who acts: casket, friends, loving hands · What happens: stand, carry, arrange · To what, where: front, grave, beautiful wild date branches
This is a sentence of «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, Miss Russell’s Funeral Service. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (casket, friends, loving hands), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 casket | det |
| 2 | casket | casket | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 stood | nsubj |
| 3 | with | with | ADP | _ | 5 covering | case |
| 4 | its | its | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 5 covering | nmod:poss |
| 5 | covering | covering | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 casket | nmod |
| 6 | of | of | ADP | _ | 8 vines | case |
| 7 | beautiful | beautiful | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 vines | amod |
| 8 | vines | vine | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 covering | nmod |
| 9 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 11 flowers | cc |
| 10 | white | white | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 11 flowers | amod |
| 11 | flowers | flower | NOUN | Number=Plur | 8 vines | conj |
| 12 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 roses | punct |
| 13 | roses | rose | NOUN | Number=Plur | 8 vines | conj |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 lilies | punct |
| 15 | day | day | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 lilies | compound |
| 16 | lilies | lily | NOUN | Number=Plur | 8 vines | conj |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 tuberoses | punct |
| 18 | tuberoses | tuberose | NOUN | Number=Plur | 16 lilies | conj |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 spirea | punct |
| 20 | spirea | spirea | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 vines | conj |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 2 casket | punct |
| 22 | stood | stand | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 23 | in | in | ADP | _ | 24 front | case |
| 24 | front | front | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 stood | obl |
| 25 | of | of | ADP | _ | 27 altar | case |
| 26 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 27 altar | det |
| 27 | altar | altar | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 front | nmod |
| 28 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 30 carried | cc |
| 29 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 30 carried | aux:pass |
| 30 | carried | carry | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 22 stood | conj |
| 31 | by | by | ADP | _ | 33 friends | case |
| 32 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 33 friends | det |
| 33 | friends | friend | NOUN | Number=Plur | 30 carried | obl |
| 34 | to | to | ADP | _ | 36 grave | case |
| 35 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 36 grave | det |
| 36 | grave | grave | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 carried | obl |
| 37 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 42 arranged | punct |
| 38 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 42 arranged | advmod |
| 39 | loving | loving | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 40 hands | amod |
| 40 | hands | hand | NOUN | Number=Plur | 42 arranged | nsubj |
| 41 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 42 arranged | aux |
| 42 | arranged | arrange | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 36 grave | acl:relcl |
| 43 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 47 branches | det |
| 44 | beautiful | beautiful | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 47 branches | amod |
| 45 | wild | wild | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 47 branches | amod |
| 46 | date | date | NOUN | Number=Sing | 47 branches | compound |
| 47 | branches | branch | NOUN | Number=Plur | 42 arranged | obj |
| 48 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 49 vines | cc |
| 49 | vines | vine | NOUN | Number=Plur | 47 branches | conj |
| 50 | as | as | ADP | _ | 52 lining | case |
| 51 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 52 lining | det |
| 52 | lining | lining | NOUN | Number=Sing | 47 branches | nmod |
| 53 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 22 stood | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | stand | past | the casket with casket's covering of beautiful vines and white flowers and roses and day lilies and tuberoses and spirea | front of the altar | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in front=Location | ||||
| 2 | carry | past · passive | the friends | the grave | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent to grave=Destination | ||||
| 3 | arrange | past · perfect | loving hands | the beautiful wild date branches and vines | as a lining | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent branch=Product |
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: «Gleanings from Chinese folklore» by Nellie Naomi Russell, Project Gutenberg book 75089 (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/pg75089/5/21/