Celtic Fairy Tales, A Legend of Knockmany, sentence 29
As he spoke, he clapped his thumb in his mouth, which he always did when he wanted to prophesy, or to know anything that happened in his absence; and the wife asked him what he did it for.
Who acts: Cucullin, wife · What happens: speak, clap, do, want, prophesy, know · To what, where: thumb, anything, absence, Cucullin · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, A Legend of Knockmany. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Cucullin, wife), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.
Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher. This tree is Mova's own parse (the en model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.
The tree
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | As | as | SCONJ | _ | 3 spoke | mark |
| 2 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 spoke | nsubj |
| 3 | spoke | speak | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 clapped | advcl |
| 4 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 spoke | punct |
| 5 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 6 clapped | nsubj |
| 6 | clapped | clap | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 7 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 8 thumb | nmod:poss |
| 8 | thumb | thumb | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 clapped | obj |
| 9 | in | in | ADP | _ | 11 mouth | case |
| 10 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 11 mouth | nmod:poss |
| 11 | mouth | mouth | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 thumb | nmod |
| 12 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 did | punct |
| 13 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 16 did | obj |
| 14 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 did | nsubj |
| 15 | always | always | ADV | PronType=Tot | 16 did | advmod |
| 16 | did | do | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 thumb | acl:relcl |
| 17 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 19 wanted | advmod |
| 18 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 wanted | nsubj |
| 19 | wanted | want | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 16 did | advcl |
| 20 | to | to | PART | _ | 21 prophesy | mark |
| 21 | prophesy | prophesy | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 19 wanted | xcomp |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 25 know | punct |
| 23 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 25 know | cc |
| 24 | to | to | PART | _ | 25 know | mark |
| 25 | know | know | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 21 prophesy | conj |
| 26 | anything | anything | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Ind | 25 know | obj |
| 27 | that | that | PRON | PronType=Rel | 28 happened | nsubj |
| 28 | happened | happen | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 26 anything | acl:relcl |
| 29 | in | in | ADP | _ | 31 absence | case |
| 30 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 31 absence | nmod:poss |
| 31 | absence | absence | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 happened | obl |
| 32 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 36 asked | punct |
| 33 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 36 asked | cc |
| 34 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 35 wife | det |
| 35 | wife | wife | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 asked | nsubj |
| 36 | asked | ask | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 clapped | conj |
| 37 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 36 asked | iobj |
| 38 | what | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 40 did | obj |
| 39 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 40 did | nsubj |
| 40 | did | do | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 36 asked | ccomp |
| 41 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 40 did | obj |
| 42 | for | for | ADP | _ | 40 did | obl |
| 43 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 6 clapped | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | speak speech: other | past | Cucullin | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 2 | clap | past | Cucullin | Cucullin's thumb | in Cucullin's mouth | vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent thumb=Patient in mouth=Theme | |||
| 3 | do | past | Cucullin | Cucullin's thumb | always property | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent which=Eventuality | |||
| 4 | want | past | Cucullin | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme | |||||
| 5 | prophesy not said to happen | to-infinitive | Cucullin not said here | vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 6 | know | to-infinitive | Cucullin not said here | anything | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer anything=Stimulus | ||||
| 7 | happen | past | Cucullin's absence | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in absence=Location | |||||
| 8 | ask speech: ask | past | the wife | Cucullin | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 9 | do | past | Cucullin | thumb | tree rules | ||||
| 10 | absent | Cucullin | nom absence «state transitive»: poss=agent |
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: «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7885 (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/pg7885/22/29/