Legends of the conquest of Spain, Letter of Muza to the Caliph.—second Expedition of Taric El Tuerto., sentence 20
He chose a dark night to convey his troops across the Straits of Hercules; and, by break of day, they began to disembark at Tarifa, before the country had time to take the alarm.
Who acts: fire, troops, country · What happens: choose, convey, begin, disembark, have, take · To what, where: troops, Tarifa, alarm, day
This is a sentence of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, Letter of Muza to the Caliph.—second Expedition of Taric El Tuerto.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fire, troops, country), 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 chose | nsubj |
| 2 | chose | choose | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 5 night | det |
| 4 | dark | dark | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 night | amod |
| 5 | night | night | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 chose | obl:unmarked |
| 6 | to | to | PART | _ | 7 convey | mark |
| 7 | convey | convey | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 2 chose | advcl |
| 8 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 9 troops | nmod:poss |
| 9 | troops | troops | NOUN | Number=Ptan | 7 convey | obj |
| 10 | across | across | ADP | _ | 12 Straits | case |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 Straits | det |
| 12 | Straits | Strait | PROPN | Number=Plur | 7 convey | obj |
| 13 | of | of | ADP | _ | 14 Hercules | case |
| 14 | Hercules | Hercules | PROPN | Number=Sing | 12 Straits | nmod |
| 15 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 19 break | punct |
| 16 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 19 break | cc |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 and | punct |
| 18 | by | by | ADP | _ | 19 break | case |
| 19 | break | break | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 chose | parataxis |
| 20 | of | of | ADP | _ | 21 day | case |
| 21 | day | day | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 break | nmod |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 began | punct |
| 23 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 24 began | nsubj |
| 24 | began | begin | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 19 break | parataxis |
| 25 | to | to | PART | _ | 26 disembark | mark |
| 26 | disembark | disembark | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 24 began | xcomp |
| 27 | at | at | ADP | _ | 28 Tarifa | case |
| 28 | Tarifa | Tarifa | PROPN | Number=Sing | 26 disembark | obl |
| 29 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 33 had | punct |
| 30 | before | before | SCONJ | _ | 33 had | mark |
| 31 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 32 country | det |
| 32 | country | country | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 had | nsubj |
| 33 | had | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 24 began | conj |
| 34 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 had | obj |
| 35 | to | to | PART | _ | 36 take | mark |
| 36 | take | take | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 34 time | acl |
| 37 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 38 alarm | det |
| 38 | alarm | alarm | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 take | obj |
| 39 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 chose | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | choose | past | fire | night | break of day parataxis | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | |||
| 2 | convey | to-infinitive | fire not said here | fire's troops | the Straits of Hercules obj | tree rules | |||
| 3 | begin | past | troops | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 4 | disembark | to-infinitive | troops not said here | Tarifa | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 5 | have | past | the country | time | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 6 | take | to-infinitive | the country not said here | the alarm | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent alarm=Theme | ||||
| 7 | break | day | nom break «event transitive»: of=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: «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, Project Gutenberg book 77685 (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/pg77685/11/20/