Early Bardic Literature, Ireland., Early Bardic Literature, Ireland., part 5, sentence 53
It was an age of creative thought, and such thought is difficult to control; but that one of the prime objects and prime works of the bards, as an organisation, was to preserve a record of a certain class of historical facts is certain.
Who acts: question, such thought, record, bards · What happens: be, control, work, record · To what, where: age, certain class
This is a sentence of «Early Bardic Literature, Ireland.» by Standish O'Grady, Early Bardic Literature, Ireland., part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (question, such thought, record, bards), 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 | It | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 age | nsubj |
| 2 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 age | cop |
| 3 | an | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 4 age | det |
| 4 | age | age | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 5 | of | of | ADP | _ | 7 thought | case |
| 6 | creative | creative | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 thought | amod |
| 7 | thought | thought | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 age | nmod |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 difficult | punct |
| 9 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 13 difficult | cc |
| 10 | such | such | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 11 thought | amod |
| 11 | thought | thought | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 difficult | nsubj |
| 12 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 13 difficult | cop |
| 13 | difficult | difficult | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 age | advcl |
| 14 | to | to | PART | _ | 15 control | mark |
| 15 | control | control | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 13 difficult | ccomp |
| 16 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 19 one | punct |
| 17 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 19 one | cc |
| 18 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 19 one | mark |
| 19 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 4 age | appos |
| 20 | of | of | ADP | _ | 23 objects | case |
| 21 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 objects | det |
| 22 | prime | prime | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 23 objects | amod |
| 23 | objects | object | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 one | nmod |
| 24 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 26 works | cc |
| 25 | prime | prime | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 26 works | amod |
| 26 | works | work | NOUN | Number=Plur | 23 objects | conj |
| 27 | of | of | ADP | _ | 29 bards | case |
| 28 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 29 bards | det |
| 29 | bards | bard | NOUN | Number=Plur | 26 works | nmod |
| 30 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 33 organisation | punct |
| 31 | as | as | ADP | _ | 33 organisation | case |
| 32 | an | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 33 organisation | det |
| 33 | organisation | organisation | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 one | conj |
| 34 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 age | punct |
| 35 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 37 preserve | cop |
| 36 | to | to | PART | _ | 37 preserve | mark |
| 37 | preserve | preserve | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | 4 age | parataxis |
| 38 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 39 record | det |
| 39 | record | record | NOUN | Number=Sing | 48 certain | nsubj |
| 40 | of | of | ADP | _ | 43 class | case |
| 41 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 43 class | det |
| 42 | certain | certain | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 43 class | amod |
| 43 | class | class | NOUN | Number=Sing | 39 record | nmod |
| 44 | of | of | ADP | _ | 46 facts | case |
| 45 | historical | historical | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 46 facts | amod |
| 46 | facts | fact | NOUN | Number=Plur | 43 class | nmod |
| 47 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 48 certain | cop |
| 48 | certain | certain | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 37 preserve | ccomp |
| 49 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 age | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | past | question | a age | of creative thought; one of the prime objects and prime works of the bards and a organisation appos | tree rules | |||
| 2 | is | present | such thought | difficult property | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | control | to-infinitive | such thought not said here | vn enforce-63 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 4 | is | past | preserve property | tree rules | |||||
| 5 | is | present | a record of a certain class of historical facts | certain property | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | work | the bards | nom work «act intransitive»: of=agent | ||||||
| 7 | record | a certain class of historical facts | nom record «communication transitive»: of=patient |
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: «Early Bardic Literature, Ireland.» by Standish O'Grady, Project Gutenberg book 8109 (public domain in the USA). Tree: Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), the chapter read in order.
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