Tanglewood Tales, The Pygmies., part 1, sentence 13

At harvest time, they were forced to go with their little axes and cut down the grain, exactly as a woodcutter makes a clearing in the forest; and when a stalk of wheat, with its overburdened top, chanced to come crashing down upon an unfortunate Pygmy, it was apt to be a very sad affair.

Who acts: Pygmies, woodcutter, stalk · What happens: force, go, cut down, make, overburden, chance · To what, where: Pygmies, grain, clearing, forest, unfortunate Pygmy, sad affair

This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Pygmies., part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Pygmies, woodcutter, stalk), 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	At	at	ADP	_	3 time	case
2	harvest	harvest	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 time	compound
3	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 forced	obl
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 time	punct
5	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 forced	nsubj:pass
6	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 forced	aux:pass
7	forced	force	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
8	to	to	PART	_	9 go	mark
9	go	go	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 forced	xcomp
10	with	with	ADP	_	13 axes	case
11	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 axes	nmod:poss
12	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 axes	amod
13	axes	ax	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 go	obl
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 cut	cc
15	cut	cut	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 forced	conj
16	down	down	ADP	_	15 cut	compound:prt
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 grain	det
18	grain	grain	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 cut	obj
19	,	,	PUNCT	_	24 makes	punct
20	exactly	exactly	ADV	_	24 makes	advmod
21	as	as	SCONJ	_	24 makes	mark
22	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	23 woodcutter	det
23	woodcutter	woodcutter	NOUN	Number=Sing	24 makes	nsubj
24	makes	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 forced	conj
25	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	26 clearing	det
26	clearing	clearing	NOUN	Number=Sing	24 makes	obj
27	in	in	ADP	_	29 forest	case
28	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	29 forest	det
29	forest	forest	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 clearing	nmod
30	;	;	PUNCT	_	55 apt	punct
31	and	and	CCONJ	_	55 apt	cc
32	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	55 apt	advmod
33	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	34 stalk	det
34	stalk	stalk	NOUN	Number=Sing	55 apt	nsubj
35	of	of	ADP	_	36 wheat	case
36	wheat	wheat	NOUN	Number=Sing	34 stalk	nmod
37	,	,	PUNCT	_	41 top	punct
38	with	with	ADP	_	41 top	case
39	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	41 top	nmod:poss
40	overburdened	overburden	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	41 top	amod
41	top	top	NOUN	Number=Sing	34 stalk	conj
42	,	,	PUNCT	_	43 chanced	punct
43	chanced	chance	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	41 top	conj
44	to	to	PART	_	45 come	mark
45	come	come	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	43 chanced	xcomp
46	crashing	crash	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	45 come	xcomp
47	down	down	ADV	_	46 crashing	advmod
48	upon	upon	ADP	_	51 Pygmy	case
49	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	51 Pygmy	det
50	unfortunate	unfortunate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	51 Pygmy	amod
51	Pygmy	pygmy	NOUN	Number=Sing	46 crashing	obl
52	,	,	PUNCT	_	55 apt	punct
53	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	55 apt	nsubj
54	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	55 apt	cop
55	apt	apt	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 forced	conj
56	to	to	PART	_	61 affair	mark
57	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	61 affair	cop
58	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	61 affair	det
59	very	very	ADV	_	60 sad	advmod
60	sad	sad	ADJ	Degree=Pos	61 affair	amod
61	affair	affair	NOUN	Number=Sing	55 apt	advcl
62	.	.	PUNCT	_	7 forced	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	force	past · passive		Pygmies = pygmy		time		vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic
2	go	to-infinitive	Pygmies = pygmy not said here				with Pygmies's little axes	vn help-72.1-2 «NP V PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent with ax=Beneficiary
3	cut down	participle		the grain				vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset grain=Product
4	make	present	a woodcutter	a clearing	the forest		exactly property	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset clearing=Product
5	overburden	participle						vn equip-13.4.2-1-1 «NP.theme V NP»: agent=Theme
6	chance	participle	a stalk of wheat and grain's overburdened top not said here					vn risk-94-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
7	come	to-infinitive	a stalk of wheat and grain's overburdened top not said here					tree rules
8	crash down	gerund	a stalk of wheat and grain's overburdened top not said here		a unfortunate Pygmy		down property	vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon pygmy=Location
9	is	past	a stalk of wheat and grain's overburdened top				apt property	tree rules
10	is a	to-infinitive	a stalk of wheat and grain's overburdened top not said here	a sad affair				tree rules

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/pg976/7/13/