Tanglewood Tales, The Dragon's Teeth., part 4, sentence 17

Thus, though the struggle was a tremendous one, and though the dragon shattered the tuft of trees into small splinters by the lashing of his tail, yet, as Cadmus was all the while slashing and stabbing at his very vitals, it was not long before the scaly wretch bethought himself of slipping away.

Who acts: struggle, dragon, Cadmus · What happens: be, shatter, slash, stab, not be, bethink · To what, where: tremendous one, tuft, small splinters, Cadmus

This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Dragon's Teeth., part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (struggle, dragon, Cadmus), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher. This tree is Mova's own parse (the en model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

The tree

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Thus	thus	ADV	_	9 one	advmod
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 one	punct
3	though	though	SCONJ	_	9 one	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 struggle	det
5	struggle	struggle	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 one	nsubj
6	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 one	cop
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 one	det
8	tremendous	tremendous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 one	amod
9	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 shattered	punct
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 shattered	cc
12	though	though	SCONJ	_	15 shattered	mark
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 dragon	det
14	dragon	dragon	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 shattered	nsubj
15	shattered	shatter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 one	conj
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 tuft	det
17	tuft	tuft	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 shattered	obj
18	of	of	ADP	_	19 trees	case
19	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	17 tuft	nmod
20	into	into	ADP	_	22 splinters	case
21	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	22 splinters	amod
22	splinters	splinter	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 shattered	obl
23	by	by	ADP	_	25 lashing	case
24	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	25 lashing	det
25	lashing	lashing	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 shattered	obl
26	of	of	ADP	_	28 tail	case
27	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	28 tail	nmod:poss
28	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	25 lashing	nmod
29	,	,	PUNCT	_	30 yet	punct
30	yet	yet	ADV	_	15 shattered	advmod
31	,	,	PUNCT	_	38 slashing	punct
32	as	as	SCONJ	_	38 slashing	mark
33	Cadmus	Cadmus	PROPN	Number=Sing	38 slashing	nsubj
34	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	38 slashing	aux
35	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	37 while	det:predet
36	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	37 while	det
37	while	while	NOUN	Number=Sing	38 slashing	nsubj
38	slashing	slash	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	15 shattered	advcl
39	and	and	CCONJ	_	40 stabbing	cc
40	stabbing	stab	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	38 slashing	conj
41	at	at	ADP	_	44 vitals	case
42	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	44 vitals	nmod:poss
43	very	very	ADV	_	44 vitals	advmod
44	vitals	vital	NOUN	Number=Plur	40 stabbing	obl
45	,	,	PUNCT	_	49 long	punct
46	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	49 long	nsubj
47	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	49 long	cop
48	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	49 long	advmod
49	long	long	ADV	Degree=Pos	54 bethought	advmod
50	before	before	ADP	_	53 wretch	case
51	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	53 wretch	det
52	scaly	scaly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	53 wretch	amod
53	wretch	wretch	NOUN	Number=Sing	54 bethought	obl
54	bethought	bethink	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	38 slashing	advcl
55	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	54 bethought	obj
56	of	of	SCONJ	_	57 slipping	mark
57	slipping	slip	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	54 bethought	advcl
58	away	away	ADV	_	57 slipping	advmod
59	.	.	PUNCT	_	9 one	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	the struggle	a tremendous one		thus property	tree rules
2	shatter	past	the dragon	the tuft of trees	yet	into small splinters result; by the lashing of Cadmus's tail	vn break-45.1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent tuft=Patient into splinter=Result
3	slash	past · progressive	Cadmus				vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient
4	stab	gerund	Cadmus not said here			at Cadmus's vitals	vn poke-19-1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at vital=Theme
5	not is	past	dragon			long property	tree rules
6	bethink	past	Cadmus not said here	Cadmus	before the scaly wretch		tree rules
7	slip away	gerund	Cadmus not said here			away property	vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

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: «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Project Gutenberg book 976 (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/pg976/13/17/