Tanglewood Tales, The Pygmies., part 1, sentence 62

If the truth must be told, they were sometimes as troublesome to the Giant as a swarm of ants or mosquitoes, especially as they had a fondness for mischief, and liked to prick his skin with their little swords and lances, to see how thick and tough it was.

Who acts: tricks, fondness, truth · What happens: tell, be, have, like, prick, see · To what, where: truth, fondness, skin · Speech: someone speaks here

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 (tricks, fondness, truth), 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	If	if	SCONJ	_	6 told	mark
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 truth	det
3	truth	truth	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 told	nsubj:pass
4	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 told	aux
5	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 told	aux:pass
6	told	tell	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	12 troublesome	advcl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 told	punct
8	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 troublesome	nsubj
9	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 troublesome	cop
10	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	PronType=Ind	12 troublesome	advmod
11	as	as	ADP	_	12 troublesome	case
12	troublesome	troublesome	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
13	to	to	ADP	_	15 Giant	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 Giant	det
15	Giant	giant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 troublesome	conj
16	as	as	ADP	_	18 swarm	case
17	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 swarm	det
18	swarm	swarm	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 Giant	obl
19	of	of	ADP	_	20 ants	case
20	ants	ant	NOUN	Number=Plur	18 swarm	nmod
21	or	or	CCONJ	_	22 mosquitoes	cc
22	mosquitoes	mosquito	NOUN	Number=Plur	20 ants	conj
23	,	,	PUNCT	_	27 had	punct
24	especially	especially	ADV	_	27 had	advmod
25	as	as	SCONJ	_	27 had	mark
26	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	27 had	nsubj
27	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	20 ants	acl:relcl
28	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	29 fondness	det
29	fondness	fondness	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 had	obj
30	for	for	ADP	_	31 mischief	case
31	mischief	mischief	NOUN	Number=Sing	29 fondness	nmod
32	,	,	PUNCT	_	34 liked	punct
33	and	and	CCONJ	_	34 liked	cc
34	liked	like	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	27 had	xcomp
35	to	to	PART	_	36 prick	mark
36	prick	prick	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	34 liked	xcomp
37	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	38 skin	nmod:poss
38	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	36 prick	obj
39	with	with	ADP	_	42 swords	case
40	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	42 swords	nmod:poss
41	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	42 swords	amod
42	swords	sword	NOUN	Number=Plur	36 prick	obl
43	and	and	CCONJ	_	44 lances	cc
44	lances	lance	NOUN	Number=Plur	42 swords	conj
45	,	,	PUNCT	_	47 see	punct
46	to	to	PART	_	47 see	mark
47	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	36 prick	conj
48	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	49 thick	advmod
49	thick	thick	ADJ	Degree=Pos	47 see	ccomp
50	and	and	CCONJ	_	51 tough	cc
51	tough	tough	ADJ	Degree=Pos	49 thick	conj
52	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	49 thick	nsubj
53	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	49 thick	cop
54	.	.	PUNCT	_	12 troublesome	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	tell speech: assert a condition, not said to happen	must · passive		the truth		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient
2	is	past	tricks = trick		sometimes, troublesome property	tree rules
3	be		tricks = trick not said here		as a swarm of ants or mosquitoes	tree rules
4	have	past	tricks = trick	a fondness	for mischief; especially property	tree rules
5	like	participle	a fondness not said here			vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
6	prick not said to happen	to-infinitive	a fondness not said here	Earth's skin	with tricks's little swords and lances	vn poke-19-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent skin=Patient with sword=Instrument
7	see	to-infinitive	a fondness not said here			vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
8	is	past	truth		thick property	tree rules
9	be		truth not said here			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.

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