Tanglewood Tales, The Pomegranate Seeds., part 5, sentence 13
But Quicksilver (whose eyes were very keen, and his wits the sharpest that ever anybody had) perceived that the child was a little confused; and seeing the empty salver, he suspected that she had been taking a sly nibble of something or other.
Who acts: Quicksilver, anybody, wits, child, Proserpina · What happens: be, have, perceive, see, suspect, take · To what, where: wits, empty salver, sly nibble
This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Pomegranate Seeds., 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 (Quicksilver, anybody, wits, child), 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 | But | but | CCONJ | _ | 8 keen | cc |
| 2 | Quicksilver | quicksilver | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 keen | nsubj |
| 3 | ( | ( | PUNCT | _ | 8 keen | punct |
| 4 | whose | whose | PRON | Poss=Yes PronType=Rel | 5 eyes | nmod:poss |
| 5 | eyes | eye | NOUN | Number=Plur | 8 keen | nsubj |
| 6 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 keen | cop |
| 7 | very | very | ADV | _ | 8 keen | advmod |
| 8 | keen | keen | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 wits | punct |
| 10 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 12 wits | cc |
| 11 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 12 wits | nmod:poss |
| 12 | wits | wit | NOUN | Number=Plur | 20 perceived | nsubj |
| 13 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 14 sharpest | det |
| 14 | sharpest | sharp | ADJ | Degree=Sup | 12 wits | nmod |
| 15 | that | that | PRON | PronType=Rel | 18 had | obj |
| 16 | ever | ever | ADV | PronType=Ind | 17 anybody | advmod |
| 17 | anybody | anybody | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Ind | 18 had | nsubj |
| 18 | had | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 wits | acl:relcl |
| 19 | ) | ) | PUNCT | _ | 12 wits | punct |
| 20 | perceived | perceive | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 keen | parataxis |
| 21 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 27 confused | mark |
| 22 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 child | det |
| 23 | child | child | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 confused | nsubj |
| 24 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 27 confused | cop |
| 25 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 26 little | det |
| 26 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 27 confused | obl:unmarked |
| 27 | confused | confused | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 20 perceived | advcl |
| 28 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 36 suspected | punct |
| 29 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 36 suspected | cc |
| 30 | seeing | see | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 36 suspected | advcl |
| 31 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 33 salver | det |
| 32 | empty | empty | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 33 salver | amod |
| 33 | salver | salver | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 seeing | obj |
| 34 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 30 seeing | punct |
| 35 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 36 suspected | nsubj |
| 36 | suspected | suspect | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 keen | conj |
| 37 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 41 taking | mark |
| 38 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 41 taking | nsubj |
| 39 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 41 taking | aux |
| 40 | been | be | AUX | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 41 taking | aux |
| 41 | taking | take | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 36 suspected | advcl |
| 42 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 44 nibble | det |
| 43 | sly | sly | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 44 nibble | amod |
| 44 | nibble | nibble | NOUN | Number=Sing | 41 taking | obj |
| 45 | of | of | ADP | _ | 46 something | case |
| 46 | something | something | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Ind | 44 nibble | nmod |
| 47 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 48 other | cc |
| 48 | other | other | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 46 something | conj |
| 49 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 keen | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | Quicksilver | keen property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | have | past | anybody | Quicksilver's wits the sharpest | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent that=Patient | ||||
| 3 | perceive | past | Quicksilver's wits the sharpest | vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer | |||||
| 4 | is | past | the child | a little obl:unmarked; confused property | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | see | gerund | child not said here | the empty salver | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer salver=Stimulus | ||||
| 6 | suspect | past | child | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 7 | take | past · perfect · progressive | Proserpina | a sly nibble of something | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nibble=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: «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/pg976/24/13/