Kaffir folk-lore, Story of Ironside and His Sister., sentence 1
A long time ago a woman who went to cultivate her garden took her little daughter with her, and before she began to hoe the ground she laid the child down in the shade of a tree.
Who acts: woman · What happens: go, cultivate, take, begin, hoe, lay down · To what, where: garden, little daughter, ground, child, shade, tree
This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of Ironside and His Sister.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (woman), 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 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 time | det |
| 2 | long | long | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 time | amod |
| 3 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 took | obl:unmarked |
| 4 | ago | ago | ADV | _ | 3 time | advmod |
| 5 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 6 woman | det |
| 6 | woman | woman | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 took | nsubj |
| 7 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 8 went | nsubj |
| 8 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 woman | acl:relcl |
| 9 | to | to | PART | _ | 10 cultivate | mark |
| 10 | cultivate | cultivate | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 8 went | xcomp |
| 11 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 12 garden | nmod:poss |
| 12 | garden | garden | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 cultivate | obj |
| 13 | took | take | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 14 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 16 daughter | nmod:poss |
| 15 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 16 daughter | amod |
| 16 | daughter | daughter | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 took | obj |
| 17 | with | with | ADP | _ | 18 her | case |
| 18 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 13 took | obl |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 23 began | punct |
| 20 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 23 began | cc |
| 21 | before | before | SCONJ | _ | 23 began | mark |
| 22 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 23 began | nsubj |
| 23 | began | begin | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 13 took | conj |
| 24 | to | to | PART | _ | 25 hoe | mark |
| 25 | hoe | hoe | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 23 began | xcomp |
| 26 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 27 ground | det |
| 27 | ground | ground | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 hoe | obj |
| 28 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 29 laid | nsubj |
| 29 | laid | lay | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 27 ground | acl:relcl |
| 30 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 31 child | det |
| 31 | child | child | NOUN | Number=Sing | 29 laid | obj |
| 32 | down | down | ADP | _ | 29 laid | compound:prt |
| 33 | in | in | ADP | _ | 35 shade | case |
| 34 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 35 shade | det |
| 35 | shade | shade | NOUN | Number=Sing | 29 laid | obl |
| 36 | of | of | ADP | _ | 38 tree | case |
| 37 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 38 tree | det |
| 38 | tree | tree | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 shade | nmod |
| 39 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 13 took | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | go | past | a woman | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | cultivate | to-infinitive | a woman not said here | woman's garden | vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent garden=Product | ||||
| 3 | take | past | a woman | woman's little daughter | time | with her = she | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument daughter=Destination | ||
| 4 | begin | past | woman | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 5 | hoe | to-infinitive | woman not said here | the ground | vn funnel-9.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent ground=Theme | ||||
| 6 | lay down | past | woman | the child | the shade of a tree | vn put_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent child=Theme in shade=Destination | |||
| 7 | shade | a tree | nom shade «state transitive»: of=patient |
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/pg71335/13/1/