Tanglewood Tales, The Dragon's Teeth., part 5, sentence 6

Before many years went by, there was a group of rosy little children (but how they came thither has always been a mystery to me) sporting in the great hall, and on the marble steps of the palace, and running joyfully to meet King Cadmus when affairs of state left him at leisure to play with them.

Who acts: many years, group, children, mystery, affairs · What happens: go by, be, come, sport, run, meet · To what, where: mystery, me, great hall, King, leisure, palace

This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Dragon's Teeth., part 5. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (many years, group, children, mystery), 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	Before	before	SCONJ	_	4 went	mark
2	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 years	amod
3	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 went	nsubj
4	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 was	advcl
5	by	by	ADP	_	4 went	obl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 went	punct
7	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	8 was	expl
8	was	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 group	det
10	group	group	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 was	nsubj
11	of	of	ADP	_	14 children	case
12	rosy	rosy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 children	amod
13	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 children	amod
14	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 group	nmod
15	(	(	PUNCT	_	25 mystery	punct
16	but	but	CCONJ	_	25 mystery	cc
17	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	19 came	advmod
18	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 came	nsubj
19	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	25 mystery	advcl
20	thither	thither	ADV	_	19 came	advmod
21	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	25 mystery	aux
22	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	25 mystery	advmod
23	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	25 mystery	cop
24	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	25 mystery	det
25	mystery	mystery	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 children	appos
26	to	to	ADP	_	27 me	case
27	me	I	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	25 mystery	nmod
28	)	)	PUNCT	_	25 mystery	punct
29	sporting	sport	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	25 mystery	acl
30	in	in	ADP	_	33 hall	case
31	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	33 hall	det
32	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	33 hall	amod
33	hall	hall	NOUN	Number=Sing	29 sporting	obl
34	,	,	PUNCT	_	39 steps	punct
35	and	and	CCONJ	_	39 steps	cc
36	on	on	ADP	_	39 steps	case
37	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	39 steps	det
38	marble	marble	NOUN	Number=Sing	39 steps	compound
39	steps	step	NOUN	Number=Plur	25 mystery	conj
40	of	of	ADP	_	42 palace	case
41	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	42 palace	det
42	palace	palace	NOUN	Number=Sing	39 steps	nmod
43	,	,	PUNCT	_	45 running	punct
44	and	and	CCONJ	_	45 running	cc
45	running	run	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	8 was	advcl
46	joyfully	joyfully	ADV	_	45 running	advmod
47	to	to	PART	_	48 meet	mark
48	meet	meet	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	45 running	xcomp
49	King	King	PROPN	Number=Sing	48 meet	obj
50	Cadmus	Cadmus	PROPN	Number=Sing	49 King	flat
51	when	when	SCONJ	_	55 left	mark
52	affairs	affair	NOUN	Number=Plur	55 left	nsubj
53	of	of	ADP	_	54 state	case
54	state	state	NOUN	Number=Sing	52 affairs	nmod
55	left	leave	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	48 meet	advcl
56	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	55 left	obj
57	at	at	ADP	_	58 leisure	case
58	leisure	leisure	NOUN	Number=Sing	55 left	obl
59	to	to	PART	_	60 play	mark
60	play	play	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	55 left	advcl
61	with	with	ADP	_	62 them	case
62	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	60 play	obl
63	.	.	PUNCT	_	8 was	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	other	roles by
1	go by	past	many years					vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	be	past	a group of rosy little children			there		vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	come	past	children = child				thither property	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
4	is a	present · perfect		a mystery and the marble steps of the palace	me		always property	tree rules
5	sport	gerund	a mystery and the marble steps of the palace not said here			the great hall		tree rules
6	run	gerund	a group of rosy little children not said here				joyfully property	vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
7	meet	to-infinitive	a group of rosy little children not said here	King				vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent king=Co-Agent
8	leave	past	affairs of state	King		leisure		vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent he=Theme at leisure=Location
9	play	to-infinitive	affairs of state not said here				with affairs = affair	vn play-114.2-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent with they=Theme
10	step			the palace				nom step «act 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: «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/pg976/14/6/