Kaffir folk-lore, The Runaway Children; Or, the Wonderful Feather., sentence 40
Nomagoda came to the tree and commenced to cut it down; but when a chip fell out, a bird (Ntengu) sang—
Who acts: Nomagoda, chip, bird · What happens: come, commence, cut down, fall out, sing · To what, where: tree
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 (Nomagoda, chip, bird), 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 | Nomagoda | Nomagoda | PROPN | Number=Sing | 2 came | nsubj |
| 2 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | to | to | ADP | _ | 5 tree | case |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 tree | det |
| 5 | tree | tree | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 came | obl |
| 6 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 7 commenced | cc |
| 7 | commenced | commence | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 2 came | conj |
| 8 | to | to | PART | _ | 9 cut | mark |
| 9 | cut | cut | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 7 commenced | xcomp |
| 10 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 9 cut | obj |
| 11 | down | down | ADP | _ | 9 cut | compound:prt |
| 12 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 25 sang | punct |
| 13 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 25 sang | cc |
| 14 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 17 fell | advmod |
| 15 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 16 chip | det |
| 16 | chip | chip | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 fell | nsubj |
| 17 | fell | fall | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 25 sang | advcl |
| 18 | out | out | ADP | _ | 17 fell | compound:prt |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 fell | punct |
| 20 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 21 bird | det |
| 21 | bird | bird | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 sang | nsubj |
| 22 | ( | ( | PUNCT | _ | 23 Ntengu | punct |
| 23 | Ntengu | Ntengu | PROPN | Number=Sing | 21 bird | appos |
| 24 | ) | ) | PUNCT | _ | 23 Ntengu | punct |
| 25 | sang | sing | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 came | conj |
| 26 | — | - | PUNCT | _ | 25 sang | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | come | past | Nomagoda | the tree | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to tree=Initial_Location | ||||
| 2 | commence | participle | Nomagoda not said here | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 3 | cut down | to-infinitive | Nomagoda not said here | tree | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset it=Product | ||||
| 4 | fall out | past | a chip | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 5 | sing speech: express | past | a bird | vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location |
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.
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