Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Hlakanyana., sentence 320
While they were fastening the thatch, Hlakanyana sewed the hair of the tail of the hyena fast.
Who acts: others, Hlakanyana · What happens: fasten, sew · To what, where: thatch, hair
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 (others, Hlakanyana), 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 | While | while | SCONJ | _ | 4 fastening | mark |
| 2 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 fastening | nsubj |
| 3 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 fastening | aux |
| 4 | fastening | fasten | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 9 sewed | advcl |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 thatch | det |
| 6 | thatch | thatch | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 fastening | obj |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 fastening | punct |
| 8 | Hlakanyana | Hlakanyana | PROPN | Number=Sing | 9 sewed | nsubj |
| 9 | sewed | sew | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 hair | det |
| 11 | hair | hair | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 sewed | obj |
| 12 | of | of | ADP | _ | 14 tail | case |
| 13 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 14 tail | det |
| 14 | tail | tail | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 hair | nmod |
| 15 | of | of | ADP | _ | 17 hyena | case |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 hyena | det |
| 17 | hyena | hyena | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 tail | nmod |
| 18 | fast | fast | ADV | Degree=Pos | 9 sewed | advmod |
| 19 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 9 sewed | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | fasten | past · progressive | others = other | the thatch | vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thatch=Patient | ||||
| 2 | sew | past | Hlakanyana | the hair of the tail of the hyena | fast property | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hair=Product |
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/pg71335/10/320/