Legends of the conquest of Spain, Story of the Marvellous and Portentous Tower., sentence 33
They had scarcely advanced a few paces, however, when they recoiled, overcome by the baleful air, or by some fearful vision.
Who acts: fearful vision, knees · What happens: advance, recoil, overcome · To what, where: knees
This is a sentence of «Legends of the conquest of Spain» by Washington Irving, Story of the Marvellous and Portentous Tower.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (fearful vision, knees), 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 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 advanced | nsubj:pass |
| 2 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 advanced | aux |
| 3 | scarcely | scarcely | ADV | _ | 4 advanced | advmod |
| 4 | advanced | advance | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 5 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 7 paces | det |
| 6 | few | few | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 paces | amod |
| 7 | paces | pace | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 advanced | obj |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 recoiled | punct |
| 9 | however | however | ADV | _ | 13 recoiled | advmod |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 recoiled | punct |
| 11 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 13 recoiled | advmod |
| 12 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 13 recoiled | nsubj |
| 13 | recoiled | recoil | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 advanced | conj |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 overcome | punct |
| 15 | overcome | overcome | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 4 advanced | conj |
| 16 | by | by | ADP | _ | 19 air | case |
| 17 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 19 air | det |
| 18 | baleful | baleful | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 19 air | amod |
| 19 | air | air | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 overcome | obl |
| 20 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 25 vision | punct |
| 21 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 25 vision | cc |
| 22 | by | by | ADP | _ | 25 vision | case |
| 23 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 25 vision | det |
| 24 | fearful | fearful | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 25 vision | amod |
| 25 | vision | vision | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 advanced | obl |
| 26 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 advanced | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | advance | past · perfect · passive | some fearful vision | knees = knee | a few paces obj; scarcely property | vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.goal NP»: agent=Agent subject=Goal pace=Theme | |||
| 2 | recoil | past | knees = knee | however property | vn flinch-40.5 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | ||||
| 3 | overcome | participle | some fearful vision not said here | by the baleful air | vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot |
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/pg77685/8/33/