Kaffir folk-lore, The Runaway Children; Or, the Wonderful Feather., sentence 18
When he heard who they were, he was sorry for them, and told them their aunt was a cannibal, giving them advice not to stay there.
Who acts: Magoda, pots, aunt · What happens: hear, be, tell, give, not stay · To what, where: pots, cannibal, advice · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Runaway Children; Or, the Wonderful Feather.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Magoda, pots, aunt), 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 | When | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 3 heard | advmod |
| 2 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 heard | nsubj |
| 3 | heard | hear | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 sorry | advcl |
| 4 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Int | 3 heard | ccomp |
| 5 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 who | nsubj |
| 6 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 who | cop |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 heard | punct |
| 8 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 10 sorry | nsubj |
| 9 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 sorry | cop |
| 10 | sorry | sorry | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 11 | for | for | ADP | _ | 12 them | case |
| 12 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 10 sorry | obl |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 told | punct |
| 14 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 15 told | cc |
| 15 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 sorry | parataxis |
| 16 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 15 told | iobj |
| 17 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 18 aunt | nmod:poss |
| 18 | aunt | aunt | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 cannibal | nsubj |
| 19 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 21 cannibal | cop |
| 20 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 21 cannibal | det |
| 21 | cannibal | cannibal | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 told | ccomp |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 23 giving | punct |
| 23 | giving | give | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 15 told | advcl |
| 24 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 23 giving | iobj |
| 25 | advice | advice | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 giving | obj |
| 26 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 28 stay | advmod |
| 27 | to | to | PART | _ | 28 stay | mark |
| 28 | stay | stay | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 23 giving | advcl |
| 29 | there | there | ADV | PronType=Dem | 28 stay | advmod |
| 30 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 10 sorry | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | hear | past | Magoda | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer | |||||
| 2 | is a | past | pots = pot | tree rules | |||||
| 3 | is | past | Magoda | for pots = pot; sorry property | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | tell speech: assert | past | pots = pot | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent they=Recipient | |||||
| 5 | is a | past | pots's aunt | a cannibal | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | give | gerund | advice | pots = pot | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Recipient advice=Theme | ||||
| 7 | not stay | to-infinitive | there | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
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/pg71335/12/18/