Folk tales of Sind and Guzarat, The Eighth Key., sentence 71
He had not been seated more than a few minutes before the two birds came and perched a few feet above his head.
Who acts: two birds · What happens: not seat, come, perch · To what, where: minister, few feet, head
This is a sentence of «Folk tales of Sind and Guzarat» by C. A. Kincaid, The Eighth Key.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (two birds), 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 | 5 seated | nsubj |
| 2 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 seated | aux |
| 3 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 5 seated | advmod |
| 4 | been | be | AUX | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 5 seated | aux:pass |
| 5 | seated | seat | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 6 | more | more | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 5 seated | obj |
| 7 | than | than | ADP | _ | 10 minutes | case |
| 8 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 10 minutes | det |
| 9 | few | few | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 10 minutes | amod |
| 10 | minutes | minute | NOUN | Number=Plur | 6 more | obl |
| 11 | before | before | SCONJ | _ | 15 came | mark |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 14 birds | det |
| 13 | two | two | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 14 birds | nummod |
| 14 | birds | bird | NOUN | Number=Plur | 15 came | nsubj |
| 15 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 seated | advcl |
| 16 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 perched | cc |
| 17 | perched | perch | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 15 came | conj |
| 18 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 20 feet | det |
| 19 | few | few | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 20 feet | amod |
| 20 | feet | foot | NOUN | Number=Plur | 17 perched | obj |
| 21 | above | above | ADP | _ | 23 head | case |
| 22 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 23 head | nmod:poss |
| 23 | head | head | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 perched | obl |
| 24 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 seated | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not seat | past · perfect · passive | minister | tree rules | |||||
| 2 | come | past | the two birds | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 3 | perch | past | the two birds not said here | a few feet | minister's head | vn put_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent foot=Theme above head=Destination |
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 of Sind and Guzarat» by C. A. Kincaid, Project Gutenberg book 76982 (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/pg76982/11/71/