Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch, Opening, part 2, sentence 90
Had it been midnight, and dark as night is wont to be, yet had ye seen the grass and the flowers by the light of the sparks that flew so thick from helmet and sword and fell upon the earth.
Who acts: night, ye, sparks · What happens: have, be, see, fly, fall, light · To what, where: sword, midnight, grass, earth, sparks
This is a sentence of «Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch» by Jessie L. Weston, Opening, 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 (night, ye, sparks), 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 | Had | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 2 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 1 Had | obj |
| 3 | been | be | AUX | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 4 midnight | cop |
| 4 | midnight | midnight | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Had | obj |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 dark | punct |
| 6 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 7 dark | cc |
| 7 | dark | dark | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 1 Had | conj |
| 8 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 11 wont | mark |
| 9 | night | night | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 wont | nsubj |
| 10 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 11 wont | cop |
| 11 | wont | wont | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 dark | advcl |
| 12 | to | to | PART | _ | 13 be | mark |
| 13 | be | be | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 11 wont | xcomp |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 seen | punct |
| 15 | yet | yet | CCONJ | _ | 18 seen | cc |
| 16 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 18 seen | aux |
| 17 | ye | ye | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=2 PronType=Prs Style=Arch | 18 seen | nsubj |
| 18 | seen | see | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 1 Had | conj |
| 19 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 20 grass | det |
| 20 | grass | grass | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 seen | obj |
| 21 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 23 flowers | cc |
| 22 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 flowers | det |
| 23 | flowers | flower | NOUN | Number=Plur | 20 grass | conj |
| 24 | by | by | ADP | _ | 26 light | case |
| 25 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 26 light | det |
| 26 | light | light | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 seen | obl |
| 27 | of | of | ADP | _ | 29 sparks | case |
| 28 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 29 sparks | det |
| 29 | sparks | spark | NOUN | Number=Plur | 26 light | nmod |
| 30 | that | that | PRON | PronType=Rel | 31 flew | nsubj |
| 31 | flew | fly | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 29 sparks | acl:relcl |
| 32 | so | so | ADV | _ | 33 thick | advmod |
| 33 | thick | thick | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 31 flew | xcomp |
| 34 | from | from | ADP | _ | 35 helmet | case |
| 35 | helmet | helmet | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 thick | obl |
| 36 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 37 sword | cc |
| 37 | sword | sword | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 helmet | conj |
| 38 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 39 fell | cc |
| 39 | fell | fall | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 31 flew | conj |
| 40 | upon | upon | ADP | _ | 42 earth | case |
| 41 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 42 earth | det |
| 42 | earth | earth | NOUN | Number=Sing | 39 fell | obl |
| 43 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 1 Had | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | have | past | sword | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient | |||||
| 2 | is a | participle | midnight | tree rules | |||||
| 3 | is | present | night | wont property | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | be | to-infinitive | night not said here | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 5 | see | past · perfect | ye | the grass and the flowers | by the light of the sparks | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer grass=Stimulus | |||
| 6 | fly | past | the sparks | thick property | vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 7 | fall | past | the sparks not said here | the earth | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme upon earth=Location | ||||
| 8 | light | the sparks | nom light «phenomenon transitive»: of=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/pg8447/2/90/