Folk tales of Sind and Guzarat, The Wisdom Seller., sentence 73
Before meeting the Brahman boy he would have run away; for stupid though he was, he knew it was unsafe to stand and watch a fight especially between the two queens’ maid-servants.
Who acts: boy, it · What happens: meet, run away, be, know, stand, watch · To what, where: Brahman boy, fight · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Folk tales of Sind and Guzarat» by C. A. Kincaid, The Wisdom Seller.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy, it), 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 | Before | before | SCONJ | _ | 2 meeting | mark |
| 2 | meeting | meet | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 19 knew | advcl |
| 3 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 boy | det |
| 4 | Brahman | Brahman | PROPN | Number=Sing | 5 boy | compound |
| 5 | boy | boy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 meeting | obj |
| 6 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 9 run | nsubj |
| 7 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 9 run | aux |
| 8 | have | have | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 9 run | aux |
| 9 | run | run | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 5 boy | acl:relcl |
| 10 | away | away | ADV | _ | 9 run | advmod |
| 11 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 13 stupid | punct |
| 12 | for | for | ADP | _ | 13 stupid | case |
| 13 | stupid | stupid | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 2 meeting | parataxis |
| 14 | though | though | SCONJ | _ | 16 was | mark |
| 15 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 was | nsubj |
| 16 | was | be | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 13 stupid | advcl |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 2 meeting | punct |
| 18 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 knew | nsubj |
| 19 | knew | know | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 20 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 22 unsafe | nsubj |
| 21 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 22 unsafe | cop |
| 22 | unsafe | unsafe | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 19 knew | ccomp |
| 23 | to | to | PART | _ | 24 stand | mark |
| 24 | stand | stand | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 22 unsafe | xcomp |
| 25 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 26 watch | cc |
| 26 | watch | watch | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 24 stand | conj |
| 27 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 28 fight | det |
| 28 | fight | fight | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 watch | obj |
| 29 | especially | especially | ADV | _ | 37 servants | advmod |
| 30 | between | between | ADP | _ | 37 servants | case |
| 31 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 33 queens | det |
| 32 | two | two | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 33 queens | nummod |
| 33 | queens | queen | NOUN | Number=Plur | 37 servants | nmod:poss |
| 34 | ’ | 's | PART | _ | 33 queens | case |
| 35 | maid | maid | NOUN | Number=Sing | 37 servants | compound |
| 36 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 35 maid | punct |
| 37 | servants | servant | NOUN | Number=Plur | 26 watch | obl |
| 38 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 19 knew | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | meet | gerund | boy not said here | the Brahman boy | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent boy=Co-Agent | ||||
| 2 | run away | would · perfect | boy | the Brahman boy not said here | away property | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent boy=Agent | |||
| 3 | be | past | boy | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 4 | know | past | boy | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | |||||
| 5 | is | past | it | unsafe property | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | stand | to-infinitive | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||||
| 7 | watch | infinitive | a fight | between the two queens's maid servants | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fight=Theme |
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/pg76982/17/73/