Legends of the Northwest, The Feast of the Virgins., part 3, sentence 4

Unsteady his steps were and slow, and he walked with a staff in his right hand, And white as the first-falling snow were the thin locks that lay on his shoulders.

Who acts: Unsteady steps, Rice, thin locks · What happens: be, walk, fall, lay, step · To what, where: right hand, shoulders

This is a sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, The Feast of the Virgins., part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Unsteady steps, Rice, thin locks), 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	Unsteady	unsteady	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 steps	amod
2	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 steps	nmod:poss
3	steps	step	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 slow	nsubj
4	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 slow	cop
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 slow	cc
6	slow	slow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 walked	punct
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 walked	cc
9	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 walked	nsubj
10	walked	walk	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 slow	conj
11	with	with	ADP	_	13 staff	case
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 staff	det
13	staff	staff	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 walked	obl
14	in	in	ADP	_	17 hand	case
15	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	17 hand	nmod:poss
16	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 hand	amod
17	hand	hand	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 walked	obl
18	,	,	PUNCT	_	20 white	punct
19	And	and	CCONJ	_	20 white	cc
20	white	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 slow	conj
21	as	as	ADP	_	26 snow	case
22	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	26 snow	det
23	first	first	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	25 falling	amod
24	-	-	PUNCT	_	23 first	punct
25	falling	fall	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	26 snow	amod
26	snow	snow	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 white	obl
27	were	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 slow	conj
28	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	30 locks	det
29	thin	thin	ADJ	Degree=Pos	30 locks	amod
30	locks	lock	NOUN	Number=Plur	27 were	nsubj
31	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	32 lay	nsubj
32	lay	lay	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	30 locks	acl:relcl
33	on	on	ADP	_	35 shoulders	case
34	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	35 shoulders	nmod:poss
35	shoulders	shoulder	NOUN	Number=Plur	32 lay	obl
36	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 slow	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	other	roles by
1	is	past	Rice's Unsteady steps		slow property	tree rules
2	walk	past	Rice	Rice's right hand	with a staff	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in hand=Trajectory
3	be		Rice's Unsteady steps not said here		as the falling snow	tree rules
4	fall	gerund				vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme
5	be	past	the thin locks			vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
6	lay	present	the thin locks	Rice's shoulders		vn put_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent on shoulder=Destination
7	step		Rice			nom step «act 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: «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, Project Gutenberg book 8122 (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/pg8122/10/4/

🌲 Legends of the Northwest, The Feast of the Virgins., part 3, sentence 4

The tree

Pragmatics

Legends of the Northwest, The Feast of the Virgins., part 3, sentence 4