Legends of the conquest of Spain, Defence of the Convent of St. George By Pelistes., sentence 4
The country, however, was forlorn and abandoned, or if perchance a human being was perceived, it was some Arab horseman, careering the plain of the Guadalquivir as fearlessly as if it were his native desert.
Who acts: country, Arab horseman · What happens: be, abandon, perceive, career · To what, where: human, Arab horseman, plain, native desert
This is a sentence of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, Defence of the Convent of St. George By Pelistes.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (country, Arab horseman), 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 | 2 country | det |
| 2 | country | country | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 forlorn | nsubj |
| 3 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 2 country | punct |
| 4 | however | however | ADV | _ | 2 country | advmod |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 2 country | punct |
| 6 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 forlorn | cop |
| 7 | forlorn | forlorn | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 8 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 9 abandoned | cc |
| 9 | abandoned | abandon | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 7 forlorn | conj |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 perchance | punct |
| 11 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 13 perchance | cc |
| 12 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 13 perchance | mark |
| 13 | perchance | perchance | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 forlorn | conj |
| 14 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 24 horseman | det |
| 15 | human | human | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 18 perceived | nsubj:pass |
| 16 | being | be | AUX | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 18 perceived | aux:pass |
| 17 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 18 perceived | aux:pass |
| 18 | perceived | perceive | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 24 horseman | nsubj |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 perceived | punct |
| 20 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 24 horseman | nsubj |
| 21 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 24 horseman | cop |
| 22 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 24 horseman | det |
| 23 | Arab | Arab | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 24 horseman | amod |
| 24 | horseman | horseman | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 perchance | appos |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 careering | punct |
| 26 | careering | career | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 24 horseman | acl |
| 27 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 28 plain | det |
| 28 | plain | plain | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 careering | obj |
| 29 | of | of | ADP | _ | 31 Guadalquivir | case |
| 30 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 31 Guadalquivir | det |
| 31 | Guadalquivir | Guadalquivir | PROPN | Number=Sing | 28 plain | nmod |
| 32 | as | as | ADV | ExtPos=CCONJ | 40 desert | cc |
| 33 | fearlessly | fearlessly | ADV | Degree=Pos | 32 as | fixed |
| 34 | as | as | ADP | _ | 32 as | fixed |
| 35 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 40 desert | mark |
| 36 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 40 desert | nsubj |
| 37 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 40 desert | cop |
| 38 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 40 desert | nmod:poss |
| 39 | native | native | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 40 desert | amod |
| 40 | desert | desert | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 plain | conj |
| 41 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 7 forlorn | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | the country | perchance conj; forlorn property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | abandon | participle | the country not said here | vn leave-51.2 «NP V NP.initial_location»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 3 | perceive | gerund · passive | human | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: subject=Stimulus | |||||
| 4 | is a | past | a Arab horseman | country nsubj | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | career | gerund | a Arab horseman not said here | the plain of the Guadalquivir as watchman's native desert | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | is a a condition, not said to happen | past | country | watchman's native desert | watchman nmod:poss | tree rules |
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/pg77685/25/4/