Legends of the Northwest, The Feast of the Virgins., part 6, sentence 63
On a dead, withered branch sits a crow, down-peering askance at the old man; On the marge of the river below romp the nut-brown and merry-voiced children, And the dark waters silently flow, broad and deep, to the plunge of the Ha-ha.
Who acts: dark waters · What happens: sit, peer, romp, flow, plunge · To what, where: crow, dead withered branch, askance, marge, Ha
This is a sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, The Feast of the Virgins., part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dark waters), 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 | On | on | ADP | _ | 6 branch | case |
| 2 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 6 branch | det |
| 3 | dead | dead | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 branch | amod |
| 4 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 dead | punct |
| 5 | withered | withered | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 branch | amod |
| 6 | branch | branch | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 sits | obl |
| 7 | sits | sit | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 8 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 9 crow | det |
| 9 | crow | crow | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 sits | obj |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 peering | punct |
| 11 | down | down | ADV | _ | 13 peering | advmod |
| 12 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 11 down | punct |
| 13 | peering | peer | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 7 sits | advcl |
| 14 | askance | askance | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 peering | obj |
| 15 | at | at | ADP | _ | 18 man | case |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 18 man | det |
| 17 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 18 man | amod |
| 18 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 peering | obl |
| 19 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 27 romp | punct |
| 20 | On | on | ADP | _ | 22 marge | case |
| 21 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 22 marge | det |
| 22 | marge | marge | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 romp | obl |
| 23 | of | of | ADP | _ | 25 river | case |
| 24 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 25 river | det |
| 25 | river | river | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 marge | nmod |
| 26 | below | below | ADV | _ | 25 river | advmod |
| 27 | romp | romp | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 7 sits | conj |
| 28 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 31 brown | det |
| 29 | nut | nut | NOUN | Number=Sing | 31 brown | compound |
| 30 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 29 nut | punct |
| 31 | brown | brown | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 27 romp | ccomp |
| 32 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 36 children | cc |
| 33 | merry | merry | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 36 children | amod |
| 34 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 35 voiced | punct |
| 35 | voiced | voiced | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 36 children | amod |
| 36 | children | child | NOUN | Number=Plur | 31 brown | conj |
| 37 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 43 flow | punct |
| 38 | And | and | CCONJ | _ | 43 flow | cc |
| 39 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 41 waters | det |
| 40 | dark | dark | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 41 waters | amod |
| 41 | waters | water | NOUN | Number=Plur | 43 flow | nsubj |
| 42 | silently | silently | ADV | _ | 43 flow | advmod |
| 43 | flow | flow | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 7 sits | parataxis |
| 44 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 45 broad | punct |
| 45 | broad | broad | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 43 flow | advmod |
| 46 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 47 deep | cc |
| 47 | deep | deep | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 45 broad | conj |
| 48 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 51 plunge | punct |
| 49 | to | to | ADP | _ | 51 plunge | case |
| 50 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 51 plunge | det |
| 51 | plunge | plunge | NOUN | Number=Sing | 43 flow | obl |
| 52 | of | of | ADP | _ | 54 Ha | case |
| 53 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 54 Ha | det |
| 54 | Ha | Ha | PROPN | Number=Sing | 51 plunge | nmod |
| 55 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 56 ha | punct |
| 56 | ha | ha | INTJ | _ | 54 Ha | discourse |
| 57 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 7 sits | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | sit | present | a crow | a dead withered branch | vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent crow=Theme on branch=Location | ||||
| 2 | peer | gerund | askance | at the old man; down property | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | romp | present | the marge of the river | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on marge=Trajectory | |||||
| 4 | flow | present | the dark waters | to the plunge of the Ha; silently property | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 5 | plunge | the Ha | nom plunge «act 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: «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/pg8122/13/63/