Legends of the Northwest, The Sea-gull, the Ojibwa Legend of the Pictured Rocks of Lake Superior., sentence 60
An Hexameter line may consist of seventeen syllables, and when regular and not Spondiac, it never has fewer than thirteen: whence it follows that where the syllables are many, the plurality must be short; where few, the plurality must be long.
Who acts: Hexameter line, sun, syllables, plurality · What happens: consist, not have, follow, be · To what, where: fewer
This is a sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, The Sea-gull, the Ojibwa Legend of the Pictured Rocks of Lake Superior.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Hexameter line, sun, syllables, plurality), 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 | An | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 line | det |
| 2 | Hexameter | hexameter | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 line | compound |
| 3 | line | line | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 consist | nsubj |
| 4 | may | may | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 5 consist | aux |
| 5 | consist | consist | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 6 | of | of | ADP | _ | 8 syllables | case |
| 7 | seventeen | seventeen | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 8 syllables | nummod |
| 8 | syllables | syllable | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 consist | obl |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 regular | punct |
| 10 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 12 regular | cc |
| 11 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 12 regular | advmod |
| 12 | regular | regular | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 consist | parataxis |
| 13 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 15 Spondiac | cc |
| 14 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 15 Spondiac | advmod |
| 15 | Spondiac | Spondiac | PROPN | Number=Sing | 12 regular | conj |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 has | punct |
| 17 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 has | nsubj |
| 18 | never | never | ADV | PronType=Neg | 19 has | advmod |
| 19 | has | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 consist | parataxis |
| 20 | fewer | few | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 19 has | obj |
| 21 | than | than | ADP | _ | 22 thirteen | case |
| 22 | thirteen | thirteen | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 20 fewer | obl |
| 23 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 26 follows | punct |
| 24 | whence | whence | ADV | PronType=Int | 26 follows | advmod |
| 25 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 26 follows | nsubj |
| 26 | follows | follow | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 consist | conj |
| 27 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 32 many | mark |
| 28 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 32 many | advmod |
| 29 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 30 syllables | det |
| 30 | syllables | syllable | NOUN | Number=Plur | 32 many | nsubj |
| 31 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 32 many | cop |
| 32 | many | many | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 26 follows | advcl |
| 33 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 38 short | punct |
| 34 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 35 plurality | det |
| 35 | plurality | plurality | NOUN | Number=Sing | 38 short | nsubj |
| 36 | must | must | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 38 short | aux |
| 37 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 38 short | cop |
| 38 | short | short | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 26 follows | advcl |
| 39 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 41 few | punct |
| 40 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 41 few | advmod |
| 41 | few | few | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 38 short | conj |
| 42 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 47 long | punct |
| 43 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 44 plurality | det |
| 44 | plurality | plurality | NOUN | Number=Sing | 47 long | nsubj |
| 45 | must | must | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 47 long | aux |
| 46 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 47 long | cop |
| 47 | long | long | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 38 short | conj |
| 48 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 consist | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | consist | may | a Hexameter line | of seventeen syllables | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | not have | present | sun | fewer | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent few=Patient | ||||
| 3 | follow | present | sun | whence property | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 4 | is | present | the syllables | many property | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | is | must | the plurality | short property | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | be | the plurality not said here | tree rules | ||||||
| 7 | is | must | the plurality | long property | tree rules |
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.
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