Legends of the Northwest, The Feast of the Virgins., part 2, sentence 8
Twas the hoot of the owl that the hunters heard, And the scattering drops of the threat'ning shower, And the far wolf's cry to the moon preferred.
Who acts: hunters, scattering drops, owl · What happens: hear, cry, prefer, hoot · To what, where: owl, moon, Twas
This is a sentence of «Legends of the Northwest» by Hanford Lennox Gordon, The Feast of the Virgins., part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (hunters, scattering drops, owl), 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 | Twas | twa | NOUN | Number=Plur | root | root |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 hoot | det |
| 3 | hoot | hoot | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Twas | appos |
| 4 | of | of | ADP | _ | 6 owl | case |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 owl | det |
| 6 | owl | owl | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 hoot | nmod |
| 7 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 10 heard | mark |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 9 hunters | det |
| 9 | hunters | hunter | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 heard | nsubj |
| 10 | heard | hear | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 owl | acl |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 cry | punct |
| 12 | And | and | CCONJ | _ | 26 cry | cc |
| 13 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 drops | det |
| 14 | scattering | scattering | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 drops | compound |
| 15 | drops | drop | NOUN | Number=Plur | 26 cry | nsubj |
| 16 | of | of | ADP | _ | 19 shower | case |
| 17 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 19 shower | det |
| 18 | threat'ning | threat'ning | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 shower | compound |
| 19 | shower | shower | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 drops | nmod |
| 20 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 cry | punct |
| 21 | And | and | CCONJ | _ | 26 cry | cc |
| 22 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 24 wolf | det |
| 23 | far | far | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 24 wolf | amod |
| 24 | wolf | wolf | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 cry | nmod:poss |
| 25 | 's | 's | PART | _ | 24 wolf | case |
| 26 | cry | cry | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 heard | obj |
| 27 | to | to | ADP | _ | 29 moon | case |
| 28 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 29 moon | det |
| 29 | moon | moon | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 cry | nmod |
| 30 | preferred | prefer | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 29 moon | acl |
| 31 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 1 Twas | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | hear | past | the hunters | the owl not said here | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer owl=Stimulus | ||||
| 2 | cry speech: express | the scattering drops of the threat'ning shower | to the moon; the far wolf nmod:poss | tree rules | |||||
| 3 | prefer | participle | the moon not said here | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer | |||||
| 5 | hoot | the owl | nom hoot «communication intransitive»: of=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/pg8122/9/8/