Legends of the conquest of Spain, Chapter I., sentence 32
The Arab warriors broke forth with loud murmurs at these words: “What need have we of aid,” cried they, “when the whole country is flying before us; and what better commander can we have than Taric to lead us on to victory?”
Who acts: Arab warriors, whole country, better commander · What happens: break, need, cry, fly, have, lead on · To what, where: words, us, victory · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, Chapter I.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Arab warriors, whole country, better commander), 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 | 3 warriors | det |
| 2 | Arab | Arab | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 warriors | amod |
| 3 | warriors | warrior | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 broke | nsubj |
| 4 | broke | break | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | forth | forth | ADV | _ | 4 broke | advmod |
| 6 | with | with | ADP | _ | 8 murmurs | case |
| 7 | loud | loud | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 murmurs | amod |
| 8 | murmurs | murmur | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 broke | obl |
| 9 | at | at | ADP | _ | 11 words | case |
| 10 | these | this | DET | Number=Plur PronType=Dem | 11 words | det |
| 11 | words | word | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 broke | obl |
| 12 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 15 need | punct |
| 13 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 15 need | punct |
| 14 | What | what | DET | PronType=Int | 15 need | nsubj |
| 15 | need | need | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 broke | parataxis |
| 16 | have | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 22 cried | aux |
| 17 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 22 cried | nsubj |
| 18 | of | of | ADP | _ | 19 aid | case |
| 19 | aid | aid | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 cried | obl |
| 20 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 aid | punct |
| 21 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 19 aid | punct |
| 22 | cried | cry | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 15 need | conj |
| 23 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 22 cried | nsubj |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 31 flying | punct |
| 25 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 31 flying | punct |
| 26 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 31 flying | advmod |
| 27 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 29 country | det |
| 28 | whole | whole | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 29 country | amod |
| 29 | country | country | NOUN | Number=Sing | 31 flying | nsubj |
| 30 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 31 flying | aux |
| 31 | flying | fly | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 22 cried | advcl |
| 32 | before | before | ADP | _ | 33 us | case |
| 33 | us | we | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 31 flying | obl |
| 34 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 41 have | punct |
| 35 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 41 have | cc |
| 36 | what | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 41 have | obj |
| 37 | better | good | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 38 commander | amod |
| 38 | commander | commander | NOUN | Number=Sing | 41 have | nsubj |
| 39 | can | can | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 41 have | aux |
| 40 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 41 have | nsubj |
| 41 | have | have | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 broke | parataxis |
| 42 | than | than | ADP | _ | 43 Taric | case |
| 43 | Taric | Taric | PROPN | Number=Sing | 41 have | obl |
| 44 | to | to | PART | _ | 45 lead | mark |
| 45 | lead | lead | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 41 have | xcomp |
| 46 | us | we | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 45 lead | obj |
| 47 | on | on | ADP | _ | 45 lead | compound:prt |
| 48 | to | to | ADP | _ | 49 victory | case |
| 49 | victory | victory | NOUN | Number=Sing | 45 lead | obl |
| 50 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 4 broke | punct |
| 51 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 4 broke | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | break | past | the Arab warriors | this words | with loud murmurs; forth property | tree rules | |||
| 2 | need in a quote | present | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot | ||||||
| 3 | cry speech: express | present | of aid; we nsubj; warriors = warrior nsubj | vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 4 | fly in a quote | present · progressive | the whole country | before us | vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme before we=Location | ||||
| 5 | have in a quote | can | better commander | than Taric; what obj; we nsubj | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | lead on in a quote | to-infinitive | better commander not said here | us | victory | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent we=Theme to victory=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: «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/pg77685/22/32/