Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Hlakanyana., sentence 210
He said to them: “Why do you not ask me to lend you this digging-stick, instead of digging with your hands?”
Who acts: Hlakanyana, people · What happens: say, not ask, lend, dig · To what, where: people, Hlakanyana, digging stick · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Hlakanyana.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Hlakanyana, people), 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 | He | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 said | nsubj |
| 2 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | to | to | ADP | _ | 4 them | case |
| 4 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 said | obl |
| 5 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 11 ask | punct |
| 6 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 11 ask | punct |
| 7 | Why | why | ADV | PronType=Int | 11 ask | advmod |
| 8 | do | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 11 ask | aux |
| 9 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 11 ask | nsubj |
| 10 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 11 ask | advmod |
| 11 | ask | ask | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 2 said | ccomp |
| 12 | me | I | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 11 ask | iobj |
| 13 | to | to | PART | _ | 14 lend | mark |
| 14 | lend | lend | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 11 ask | xcomp |
| 15 | you | you | PRON | Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs | 14 lend | obj |
| 16 | this | this | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 19 stick | det |
| 17 | digging | digging | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 stick | compound |
| 18 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 17 digging | punct |
| 19 | stick | stick | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 lend | obj |
| 20 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 23 digging | punct |
| 21 | instead | instead | ADV | ExtPos=SCONJ | 23 digging | mark |
| 22 | of | of | ADP | _ | 21 instead | fixed |
| 23 | digging | dig | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 14 lend | advcl |
| 24 | with | with | ADP | _ | 26 hands | case |
| 25 | your | your | PRON | Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 26 hands | nmod:poss |
| 26 | hands | hand | NOUN | Number=Plur | 23 digging | obl |
| 27 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 11 ask | punct |
| 28 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 11 ask | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: ask | past | Hlakanyana | people | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to they=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 2 | not ask speech: ask in a quote | present · do-support | people | Hlakanyana | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S_INF»: agent=Agent i=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 3 | lend not said to happen, in a quote | to-infinitive | people not said here | this digging stick | people | vn give-13.1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent you=Recipient stick=Theme | |||
| 4 | dig in a quote | gerund | people not said here | with your hands | vn poke-19-1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with hand=Instrument |
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: «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Project Gutenberg book 71335 (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/pg71335/10/210/