Tanglewood Tales, The Minotaur., part 4, sentence 37

Theseus could only guess what the creature intended to say, and that rather by his gestures than his words; for the Minotaur's horns were sharper than his wits, and of a great deal more service to him than his tongue.

Who acts: Theseus, creature · What happens: guess, intend, say, be, gesture, word · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Minotaur., 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 (Theseus, creature), 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	Theseus	theseus	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 guess	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 guess	aux
3	only	only	ADV	_	4 guess	advmod
4	guess	guess	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	8 intended	obj
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 creature	det
7	creature	creature	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 intended	nsubj
8	intended	intend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 guess	ccomp
9	to	to	PART	_	10 say	mark
10	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 intended	xcomp
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	28 sharper	punct
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	28 sharper	cc
13	that	that	SCONJ	_	28 sharper	mark
14	rather	rather	ADV	_	28 sharper	advmod
15	by	by	ADP	_	17 gestures	case
16	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	17 gestures	nmod:poss
17	gestures	gesture	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 rather	obl
18	than	than	ADP	_	20 words	case
19	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	20 words	nmod:poss
20	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	17 gestures	nmod
21	;	;	PUNCT	_	14 rather	punct
22	for	for	ADP	_	26 horns	case
23	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	24 Minotaur	det
24	Minotaur	Minotaur	PROPN	Number=Sing	26 horns	nmod:poss
25	's	's	PART	_	24 Minotaur	case
26	horns	horn	NOUN	Number=Plur	28 sharper	obl
27	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	28 sharper	cop
28	sharper	sharp	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	4 guess	advcl
29	than	than	ADP	_	31 wits	case
30	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	31 wits	nmod:poss
31	wits	wit	NOUN	Number=Plur	28 sharper	obl
32	,	,	PUNCT	_	37 deal	punct
33	and	and	CCONJ	_	37 deal	cc
34	of	of	ADP	_	37 deal	case
35	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	37 deal	det
36	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	37 deal	amod
37	deal	deal	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 guess	parataxis
38	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	39 service	advmod
39	service	service	NOUN	Number=Sing	37 deal	nmod
40	to	to	ADP	_	41 him	case
41	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	39 service	nmod
42	than	than	ADP	_	44 tongue	case
43	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	44 tongue	nmod:poss
44	tongue	tongue	NOUN	Number=Sing	37 deal	nmod
45	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 guess	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	guess	could	Theseus		vn discover-84 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	intend	past	the creature		tree rules
3	say speech: assert not said to happen	to-infinitive	the creature not said here		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
4	is	past	Theseus not said here	for the Minotaur's horns; than Minotaur's wits; sharp property	tree rules
5	gesture		Theseus	than Theseus's words	nom gesture «act intransitive»: poss=agent than=obl
6	word		Theseus		nom word «communication transitive»: poss=agent

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/pg976/6/37/