Legends of the conquest of Spain, Chapter XIV., sentence 12
He was bowed down with years, his snowy beard descended to his girdle, and he supported his tottering steps with a palmer’s staff.
Who acts: camp, tottering · What happens: bow down, descend, support, step · To what, where: camp, snowy beard, girdle
This is a sentence of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, Chapter XIV.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (camp, tottering), 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 | 3 bowed | nsubj |
| 2 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 bowed | aux:pass |
| 3 | bowed | bow | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 4 | down | down | ADP | _ | 3 bowed | compound:prt |
| 5 | with | with | ADP | _ | 6 years | case |
| 6 | years | year | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 bowed | obl |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 beard | punct |
| 8 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 10 beard | nmod:poss |
| 9 | snowy | snowy | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 10 beard | amod |
| 10 | beard | beard | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 bowed | parataxis |
| 11 | descended | descend | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 10 beard | acl |
| 12 | to | to | ADP | _ | 14 girdle | case |
| 13 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 14 girdle | nmod:poss |
| 14 | girdle | girdle | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 descended | obl |
| 15 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 supported | punct |
| 16 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 18 supported | cc |
| 17 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 18 supported | nsubj |
| 18 | supported | support | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 bowed | conj |
| 19 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 20 tottering | nmod:poss |
| 20 | tottering | tottering | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 steps | nsubj |
| 21 | steps | step | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 18 supported | ccomp |
| 22 | with | with | ADP | _ | 26 staff | case |
| 23 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 24 palmer | det |
| 24 | palmer | palmer | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 staff | nmod:poss |
| 25 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 24 palmer | case |
| 26 | staff | staff | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 steps | obl |
| 27 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 bowed | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | bow down | past · passive | camp | year | camp's snowy beard parataxis | vn curtsey-40.3.3 «NP V NP»: subject=Topic | |||
| 2 | descend | participle | camp's snowy beard not said here | camp's girdle | vn meander-47.7-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to girdle=Location | ||||
| 3 | support | past | camp | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | |||||
| 4 | step | present | camp's tottering | with a palmer's staff | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=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: «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/pg77685/15/12/