Myths and Folk-lore of the Timiskaming Algonquin and Timagami Ojibwa, Myths and Folk-lore of the Timagami Ojibwa., part 8, sentence 58
They could not understand how she was able to do better than they, so they asked her, “What did you do it with?”
Who acts: sons, mother, you · What happens: not understand, be, do, ask · To what, where: mother, many · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Myths and Folk-lore of the Timiskaming Algonquin and Timagami Ojibwa» by Frank G. Speck, Myths and Folk-lore of the Timagami Ojibwa., part 8. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (sons, mother, you), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.
Mova's own parse. This tree may be wrong.
The tree
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 understand | nsubj |
| 2 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 4 understand | aux |
| 3 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 4 understand | advmod |
| 4 | understand | understand | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 5 | how | how | ADV | PronType=Int | 8 able | advmod |
| 6 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 8 able | nsubj |
| 7 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 able | cop |
| 8 | able | able | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 understand | ccomp |
| 9 | to | to | PART | _ | 10 do | mark |
| 10 | do | do | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 8 able | xcomp |
| 11 | better | well | ADV | Degree=Cmp | 10 do | advmod |
| 12 | than | than | ADP | _ | 13 they | case |
| 13 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 better | obl |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 asked | punct |
| 15 | so | so | ADV | _ | 17 asked | advmod |
| 16 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 17 asked | nsubj |
| 17 | asked | ask | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 understand | conj |
| 18 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 17 asked | iobj |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 do | punct |
| 20 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 24 do | punct |
| 21 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 24 do | obj |
| 22 | did | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 24 do | aux |
| 23 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 24 do | nsubj |
| 24 | do | do | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 understand | conj |
| 25 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 24 do | obj |
| 26 | with | with | ADP | _ | 24 do | obl |
| 27 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 4 understand | punct |
| 28 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 4 understand | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not understand | could | sons = son | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | |||||
| 2 | is | past | mother | able property | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | do | to-infinitive | mother not said here | well property | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 4 | ask speech: ask | past | sons = son | mother | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent she=Recipient | ||||
| 5 | do in a quote | past · do-support | you | many | What obj | 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: «Myths and Folk-lore of the Timiskaming Algonquin and Timagami Ojibwa» by Frank G. Speck, Project Gutenberg book 66509 (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/pg66509/18/58/