Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 1, sentence 63
The students of old Dutch are few in number, and the bewildering extent of the _Lancelot_ compilation, amounting as it does, even in its incomplete state, to upwards of 90,000 lines, is sufficient in itself to deter many from its examination.
Who acts: students, bewildering extent, extent · What happens: be, bewilder, amount, do, deter, extend · To what, where: number, incomplete state, many, examination, Lancelot compilation
This is a sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (students, bewildering extent, extent), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 students | det |
| 2 | students | student | NOUN | Number=Plur | 7 few | nsubj |
| 3 | of | of | ADP | _ | 5 Dutch | case |
| 4 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 Dutch | amod |
| 5 | Dutch | dutch | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 students | nmod |
| 6 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 7 few | cop |
| 7 | few | few | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 8 | in | in | ADP | _ | 9 number | case |
| 9 | number | number | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 few | obl |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 40 sufficient | punct |
| 11 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 40 sufficient | cc |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 14 extent | det |
| 13 | bewildering | bewilder | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 14 extent | amod |
| 14 | extent | extent | NOUN | Number=Sing | 40 sufficient | nsubj |
| 15 | of | of | ADP | _ | 20 compilation | case |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 20 compilation | det |
| 17 | _ | _ | PUNCT | _ | 20 compilation | punct |
| 18 | Lancelot | Lancelot | PROPN | Number=Sing | 20 compilation | compound |
| 19 | _ | _ | PUNCT | _ | 20 compilation | punct |
| 20 | compilation | compilation | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 extent | nmod |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 22 amounting | punct |
| 22 | amounting | amount | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 14 extent | conj |
| 23 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 25 does | mark |
| 24 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 25 does | nsubj |
| 25 | does | do | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 22 amounting | advcl |
| 26 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 31 state | punct |
| 27 | even | even | ADV | _ | 31 state | advmod |
| 28 | in | in | ADP | _ | 31 state | case |
| 29 | its | its | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 31 state | nmod:poss |
| 30 | incomplete | incomplete | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 31 state | amod |
| 31 | state | state | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 does | obl |
| 32 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 34 upwards | punct |
| 33 | to | to | ADP | _ | 34 upwards | case |
| 34 | upwards | upward | NOUN | Number=Plur | 31 state | nmod |
| 35 | of | of | ADP | _ | 37 lines | case |
| 36 | 90,000 | 90,000 | NUM | NumForm=Digit NumType=Card | 37 lines | nummod |
| 37 | lines | line | NOUN | Number=Plur | 34 upwards | nmod |
| 38 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 extent | punct |
| 39 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 40 sufficient | cop |
| 40 | sufficient | sufficient | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 few | conj |
| 41 | in | in | ADP | _ | 42 itself | case |
| 42 | itself | itself | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes | 40 sufficient | obl |
| 43 | to | to | PART | _ | 44 deter | mark |
| 44 | deter | deter | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 40 sufficient | csubj |
| 45 | many | many | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 44 deter | obj |
| 46 | from | from | ADP | _ | 48 examination | case |
| 47 | its | its | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 48 examination | nmod:poss |
| 48 | examination | examination | NOUN | Number=Sing | 44 deter | obl |
| 49 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 7 few | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | the students of old Dutch | number | few property | tree rules | |||
| 2 | bewilder | gerund | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer | ||||||
| 3 | amount | gerund | the bewildering extent of the Lancelot compilation not said here | vn register-54.1-1 «NP V PP.value»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 4 | do | present | extent | extent's incomplete state to upwards of 90,000 lines | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 5 | is | present | the bewildering extent of the Lancelot compilation | in extent; sufficient property | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | deter | to-infinitive | many | extent's examination | vn discourage-64.5-1 «NP V NP PP.eventuality»: agent=Causer many=Beneficiary from examination=Eventuality | ||||
| 7 | extend | the Lancelot compilation | nom extent «state transitive»: of=patient | ||||||
| 8 | examine | extent | nom examination «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: «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, Project Gutenberg book 8447 (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/pg8447/1/63/