Tanglewood Tales, The Pygmies., part 1, sentence 20

It took a far-sighted Pygmy, I can assure you, to discern his summit without the help of a telescope; and sometimes, in misty weather, they could not see his upper half, but only his long legs, which seemed to be striding about by themselves.

Who acts: It, I, Pygmies, long legs · What happens: take, sight, assure, discern, not see, seem · To what, where: sighted Pygmy, you, summit, upper half, misty weather, telescope

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 (It, I, Pygmies, long legs), 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	2 took	nsubj
2	took	take	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 Pygmy	det
4	far	far	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 sighted	amod
5	-	-	PUNCT	_	4 far	punct
6	sighted	sight	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 Pygmy	amod
7	Pygmy	Pygmy	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 took	obj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 assure	punct
9	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	11 assure	nsubj
10	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 assure	aux
11	assure	assure	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 took	parataxis
12	you	you	PRON	Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs	11 assure	iobj
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 discern	punct
14	to	to	PART	_	15 discern	mark
15	discern	discern	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 assure	conj
16	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	17 summit	nmod:poss
17	summit	summit	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 discern	obj
18	without	without	ADP	_	20 help	case
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 help	det
20	help	help	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 discern	obl
21	of	of	ADP	_	23 telescope	case
22	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	23 telescope	det
23	telescope	telescope	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 help	nmod
24	;	;	PUNCT	_	35 see	punct
25	and	and	CCONJ	_	35 see	cc
26	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	PronType=Ind	35 see	advmod
27	,	,	PUNCT	_	26 sometimes	punct
28	in	in	ADP	_	30 weather	case
29	misty	misty	ADJ	Degree=Pos	30 weather	amod
30	weather	weather	NOUN	Number=Sing	35 see	obl
31	,	,	PUNCT	_	30 weather	punct
32	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	35 see	nsubj
33	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	35 see	aux
34	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	35 see	advmod
35	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 took	conj
36	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	38 half	nmod:poss
37	upper	upper	ADJ	Degree=Pos	38 half	amod
38	half	half	NOUN	Number=Sing NumForm=Word NumType=Frac	35 see	obj
39	,	,	PUNCT	_	47 seemed	punct
40	but	but	CCONJ	_	47 seemed	cc
41	only	only	ADV	_	44 legs	advmod
42	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	44 legs	nmod:poss
43	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	44 legs	amod
44	legs	leg	NOUN	Number=Plur	47 seemed	nsubj
45	,	,	PUNCT	_	47 seemed	punct
46	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	47 seemed	nsubj
47	seemed	seem	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 took	parataxis
48	to	to	PART	_	50 striding	mark
49	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	50 striding	aux
50	striding	stride	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	47 seemed	advcl
51	about	about	ADV	_	50 striding	advmod
52	by	by	ADP	_	53 themselves	case
53	themselves	themselves	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	50 striding	obl
54	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 took	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	other	roles by
1	take	past	It		a sighted Pygmy			vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument pygmy=Destination
2	sight	participle						vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer
3	assure	can	I		you			vn advise-37.9 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent you=Recipient
4	discern	to-infinitive	I not said here	Giant's summit			without the help of a telescope	vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer summit=Stimulus
5	not see	could	Pygmies = pygmy	Giant's upper half		misty weather	sometimes property	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer half=Stimulus
6	seem	past	Giant's long legs					vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Theme
7	stride	to-infinitive · progressive	Giant's long legs not said here				by Pygmies = pygmy; about property	vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by themselves=Trajectory
8	help			a telescope				nom help «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/pg976/7/20/