Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 10, sentence 54
Then he beheld, and on the ground beneath were serpents and wild bears, even as if they would tear him; they gnashed their teeth as if they would seize him, and gaped with their jaws as they would swallow him.
Who acts: door, bears · What happens: behold, be, tear, gnash, seize, gape · To what, where: ground, door, teeth
This is a sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, part 10. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (door, bears), 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 | Then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 3 beheld | advmod |
| 2 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 beheld | nsubj |
| 3 | beheld | behold | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 8 ground | punct |
| 5 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 8 ground | cc |
| 6 | on | on | ADP | _ | 8 ground | case |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 ground | det |
| 8 | ground | ground | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 beheld | obl |
| 9 | beneath | beneath | ADP | _ | 11 serpents | case |
| 10 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 11 serpents | cop |
| 11 | serpents | serpent | NOUN | Number=Plur | 8 ground | nmod |
| 12 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 14 bears | cc |
| 13 | wild | wild | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 14 bears | amod |
| 14 | bears | bear | NOUN | Number=Plur | 11 serpents | conj |
| 15 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 21 tear | punct |
| 16 | even | even | ADV | _ | 21 tear | advmod |
| 17 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 21 tear | mark |
| 18 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 21 tear | mark |
| 19 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 21 tear | nsubj |
| 20 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 21 tear | aux |
| 21 | tear | tear | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 beheld | conj |
| 22 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 21 tear | obj |
| 23 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 25 gnashed | punct |
| 24 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 25 gnashed | nsubj |
| 25 | gnashed | gnash | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 beheld | conj |
| 26 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 27 teeth | nmod:poss |
| 27 | teeth | tooth | NOUN | Number=Plur | 25 gnashed | obj |
| 28 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 32 seize | mark |
| 29 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 32 seize | mark |
| 30 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 32 seize | nsubj |
| 31 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 32 seize | aux |
| 32 | seize | seize | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 25 gnashed | advcl |
| 33 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 32 seize | obj |
| 34 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 36 gaped | punct |
| 35 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 36 gaped | cc |
| 36 | gaped | gape | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 3 beheld | conj |
| 37 | with | with | ADP | _ | 39 jaws | case |
| 38 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 39 jaws | nmod:poss |
| 39 | jaws | jaw | NOUN | Number=Plur | 36 gaped | obl |
| 40 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 43 swallow | mark |
| 41 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 43 swallow | nsubj |
| 42 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 43 swallow | aux |
| 43 | swallow | swallow | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 36 gaped | advcl |
| 44 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 43 swallow | obj |
| 45 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 beheld | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | behold | past | door | the ground | then | vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer | |||
| 2 | is | past | beneath serpents and wild bears; wild bears conj | tree rules | |||||
| 3 | tear a condition, not said to happen | would | bears = bear | door | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial_Location he=Theme | ||||
| 4 | gnash | past | bears = bear | bears's teeth | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tooth=Patient | ||||
| 5 | seize | would | bears = bear | door | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme | ||||
| 6 | gape | participle | door not said here | with bears's jaws | vn nonverbal_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 7 | swallow | would | bears = bear | door | vn gobble-39.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=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: «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/pg8447/10/54/