Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 10, sentence 55
It seemed to him as if they were even at his heels, and he saw the snakes and dragons all twist themselves upwards. "
Who acts: It, bears, door, snakes · What happens: seem, be, see, twist · To what, where: door, bears
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 (It, bears, door, snakes), 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 | It | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 seemed | nsubj |
| 2 | seemed | seem | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | to | to | ADP | _ | 4 him | case |
| 4 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 seemed | obl |
| 5 | as | as | ADP | _ | 12 heels | case |
| 6 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 12 heels | mark |
| 7 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 12 heels | nsubj |
| 8 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 heels | cop |
| 9 | even | even | ADV | _ | 12 heels | advmod |
| 10 | at | at | ADP | _ | 12 heels | case |
| 11 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 12 heels | nmod:poss |
| 12 | heels | heel | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 seemed | obl |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 saw | punct |
| 14 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 16 saw | cc |
| 15 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 saw | nsubj |
| 16 | saw | see | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 seemed | parataxis |
| 17 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 18 snakes | det |
| 18 | snakes | snake | NOUN | Number=Plur | 22 twist | nsubj |
| 19 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 20 dragons | cc |
| 20 | dragons | dragon | NOUN | Number=Plur | 18 snakes | conj |
| 21 | all | all | ADV | _ | 22 twist | advmod |
| 22 | twist | twist | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 16 saw | conj |
| 23 | themselves | themselves | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes | 22 twist | obj |
| 24 | upwards | upwards | ADV | _ | 22 twist | advmod |
| 25 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 seemed | punct |
| 26 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 2 seemed | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | seem | past | It | door | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 2 | is a condition, not said to happen | past | bears = bear | as door's heels; door nmod:poss | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | see | past | door | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | |||||
| 4 | twist | present | the snakes and dragons | bears = bear | all, upwards property | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent themselves=Theme |
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/pg8447/10/55/