Kaffir folk-lore, The Runaway Children; Or, the Wonderful Feather., sentence 49
Then she tried to catch the feather, but it flew about too quickly for her, until she sank down exhausted on the ground at the foot of the tree.
Who acts: Ntengu, cannibal · What happens: try, catch, fly, sink down, exhaust · To what, where: feather, ground
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 (Ntengu, cannibal), 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 | Then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 3 tried | advmod |
| 2 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 tried | nsubj |
| 3 | tried | try | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | to | to | PART | _ | 5 catch | mark |
| 5 | catch | catch | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 tried | xcomp |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 feather | det |
| 7 | feather | feather | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 catch | obj |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 11 flew | punct |
| 9 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 11 flew | cc |
| 10 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 flew | nsubj |
| 11 | flew | fly | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 tried | parataxis |
| 12 | about | about | ADV | _ | 13 too | advmod |
| 13 | too | too | ADV | _ | 14 quickly | advmod |
| 14 | quickly | quickly | ADV | _ | 11 flew | advmod |
| 15 | for | for | ADP | _ | 16 her | case |
| 16 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 flew | obl |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 sank | punct |
| 18 | until | until | SCONJ | _ | 20 sank | mark |
| 19 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 20 sank | nsubj |
| 20 | sank | sink | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 11 flew | conj |
| 21 | down | down | ADV | _ | 20 sank | advmod |
| 22 | exhausted | exhaust | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 20 sank | xcomp |
| 23 | on | on | ADP | _ | 25 ground | case |
| 24 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 25 ground | det |
| 25 | ground | ground | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 exhausted | obl |
| 26 | at | at | ADP | _ | 28 foot | case |
| 27 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 28 foot | det |
| 28 | foot | foot | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 exhausted | obl |
| 29 | of | of | ADP | _ | 31 tree | case |
| 30 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 31 tree | det |
| 31 | tree | tree | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 foot | nmod |
| 32 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 tried | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | try | past | Ntengu | then | vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | ||||
| 2 | catch not said to happen | to-infinitive | Ntengu not said here | the feather | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent feather=Theme | ||||
| 3 | fly | past | cannibal | for Ntengu; quickly property | vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 4 | sink down | past | Ntengu | down property | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | exhaust | participle | Ntengu not said here | the ground | at the foot of the tree | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
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/pg71335/12/49/