Tanglewood Tales, The Dragon's Teeth., part 4, sentence 50

It was the strangest spectacle of causeless wrath, and of mischief for no good end, that had ever been witnessed; but, after all, it was neither more foolish nor more wicked than a thousand battles that have since been fought, in which men have slain their brothers with just as little reason as these children of the dragon's teeth.

Who acts: blast, men · What happens: be, witness, fight, slay · To what, where: strangest spectacle, good end, thousand battles, brothers

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 (blast, men), 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	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 spectacle	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 spectacle	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 spectacle	det
4	strangest	strange	ADJ	Degree=Sup	5 spectacle	amod
5	spectacle	spectacle	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 wrath	case
7	causeless	causeless	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 wrath	amod
8	wrath	wrath	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 spectacle	nmod
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 mischief	punct
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 mischief	cc
11	of	of	ADP	_	12 mischief	case
12	mischief	mischief	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 spectacle	conj
13	for	for	ADP	_	16 end	case
14	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	16 end	det
15	good	good	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 end	amod
16	end	end	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 mischief	nmod
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	22 witnessed	punct
18	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	22 witnessed	obj
19	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	22 witnessed	aux
20	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	22 witnessed	advmod
21	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	22 witnessed	aux:pass
22	witnessed	witness	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	16 end	acl:relcl
23	;	;	PUNCT	_	33 foolish	punct
24	but	but	CCONJ	_	33 foolish	cc
25	,	,	PUNCT	_	24 but	punct
26	after	after	ADP	_	27 all	case
27	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	33 foolish	obl
28	,	,	PUNCT	_	27 all	punct
29	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	33 foolish	nsubj
30	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	33 foolish	cop
31	neither	neither	ADV	_	33 foolish	advmod
32	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	33 foolish	advmod
33	foolish	foolish	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 spectacle	parataxis
34	nor	nor	CCONJ	Polarity=Neg	36 wicked	cc
35	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	36 wicked	advmod
36	wicked	wicked	ADJ	Degree=Pos	33 foolish	conj
37	than	than	ADP	_	40 battles	case
38	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	40 battles	det
39	thousand	thousand	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	40 battles	nummod
40	battles	battle	NOUN	Number=Plur	36 wicked	obl
41	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	45 fought	nsubj:pass
42	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	45 fought	aux
43	since	since	ADV	_	45 fought	advmod
44	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	45 fought	aux:pass
45	fought	fight	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	40 battles	acl:relcl
46	,	,	PUNCT	_	51 slain	punct
47	in	in	ADP	_	48 which	case
48	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	51 slain	obl
49	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	51 slain	nsubj
50	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	51 slain	aux
51	slain	slay	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	45 fought	conj
52	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	53 brothers	nmod:poss
53	brothers	brother	NOUN	Number=Plur	51 slain	obj
54	with	with	ADP	_	58 reason	case
55	just	just	ADV	_	57 little	advmod
56	as	as	ADV	_	57 little	advmod
57	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	58 reason	amod
58	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	51 slain	obl
59	as	as	ADP	_	61 children	case
60	these	this	DET	Number=Plur PronType=Dem	61 children	det
61	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	51 slain	obl
62	of	of	ADP	_	66 teeth	case
63	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	64 dragon	det
64	dragon	dragon	NOUN	Number=Sing	66 teeth	nmod:poss
65	's	's	PART	_	64 dragon	case
66	teeth	tooth	NOUN	Number=Plur	61 children	nmod
67	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 spectacle	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	blast	the strangest spectacle and mischief for no good end		of causeless wrath	tree rules
2	witness	past · perfect · passive		no good end	ever		vn captain-29.8-1 «NP V NP»: that=Beneficiary
3	is	past	blast		after all	foolish, neither property	tree rules
4	be		blast not said here			than a thousand battles	tree rules
5	fight	present · perfect · passive		a thousand battles		since property	vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Co-Agent
6	slay	present · perfect	men	spectacle's brothers		with little reason; as this children of the dragon's teeth	vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent brother=Patient with reason=Instrument

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/pg976/13/50/