Tanglewood Tales, The Pygmies., part 3, sentence 37

But two or three venerable and sagacious Pygmies, well versed in state affairs, gave it as their opinion that war already existed, and that it was their rightful privilege to take the enemy by surprise.

Who acts: two venerable Pygmies, war, Pygmies · What happens: verse, give, exist, be, take, opine · To what, where: two venerable Pygmies, state affairs, blast, opinion, rightful privilege, enemy

This is a sentence of «Tanglewood Tales» by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Pygmies., part 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (two venerable Pygmies, war, Pygmies), 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	_	16 gave	cc
2	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	8 Pygmies	nummod
3	or	or	CCONJ	_	4 three	cc
4	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	2 two	conj
5	venerable	venerable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 Pygmies	amod
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 sagacious	cc
7	sagacious	sagacious	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 venerable	conj
8	Pygmies	pygmy	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 gave	nsubj
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 versed	punct
10	well	well	ADV	Degree=Pos	11 versed	advmod
11	versed	verse	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 Pygmies	acl
12	in	in	ADP	_	14 affairs	case
13	state	state	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 affairs	compound
14	affairs	affair	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 versed	obl
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 Pygmies	punct
16	gave	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
17	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 gave	obj
18	as	as	ADP	_	20 opinion	case
19	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	20 opinion	nmod:poss
20	opinion	opinion	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 gave	obl
21	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	24 existed	obj
22	war	war	NOUN	Number=Sing	24 existed	nsubj
23	already	already	ADV	_	24 existed	advmod
24	existed	exist	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	20 opinion	acl:relcl
25	,	,	PUNCT	_	32 privilege	punct
26	and	and	CCONJ	_	32 privilege	cc
27	that	that	SCONJ	_	32 privilege	mark
28	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	32 privilege	nsubj
29	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	32 privilege	cop
30	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	32 privilege	nmod:poss
31	rightful	rightful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	32 privilege	amod
32	privilege	privilege	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 gave	obl
33	to	to	PART	_	34 take	mark
34	take	take	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	32 privilege	acl
35	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	36 enemy	det
36	enemy	enemy	NOUN	Number=Sing	34 take	obj
37	by	by	ADP	_	38 surprise	case
38	surprise	surprise	NOUN	Number=Sing	34 take	obl
39	.	.	PUNCT	_	16 gave	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	verse	participle		two venerable Pygmies not said here	state affairs	well property	tree rules
2	give	past	two venerable Pygmies	blast		as Pygmies's opinion	vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme
3	exist	past	war	Pygmies's opinion			tree rules
4	is a	past	war	Pygmies's rightful privilege			tree rules
5	take	to-infinitive	two venerable Pygmies not said here	the enemy		by surprise	vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent enemy=Theme
6	opine		Pygmies = pygmy				nom opinion «cognition 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/pg976/9/37/