Kaffir folk-lore, Story of Ironside and His Sister., sentence 45

They caught hold of it, thinking that he would pull them across; but when they were in the middle of the river he let go the rope, and they were all drowned.

Who acts: cannibals, Ironside, river · What happens: catch, think, pull, be, let, go · To what, where: hold, cannibals, middle, river, rope

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 (cannibals, Ironside, river), 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	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 caught	nsubj
2	caught	catch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	hold	hold	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 caught	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 it	case
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 hold	nmod
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 thinking	punct
7	thinking	think	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 caught	advcl
8	that	that	SCONJ	_	11 pull	mark
9	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 pull	nsubj
10	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 pull	aux
11	pull	pull	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 thinking	advcl
12	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 pull	obj
13	across	across	ADV	_	11 pull	advmod
14	;	;	PUNCT	_	21 middle	punct
15	but	but	CCONJ	_	21 middle	cc
16	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	21 middle	advmod
17	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	21 middle	nsubj
18	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	21 middle	cop
19	in	in	ADP	_	21 middle	case
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 middle	det
21	middle	middle	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 caught	obl
22	of	of	ADP	_	24 river	case
23	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	24 river	det
24	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 middle	nmod
25	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	26 let	nsubj
26	let	let	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	24 river	acl:relcl
27	go	go	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	26 let	xcomp
28	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	29 rope	det
29	rope	rope	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 go	obj
30	,	,	PUNCT	_	35 drowned	punct
31	and	and	CCONJ	_	35 drowned	cc
32	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	35 drowned	nsubj:pass
33	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	35 drowned	aux:pass
34	all	all	ADV	_	35 drowned	advmod
35	drowned	drown	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 caught	parataxis
36	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 caught	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	catch	past	cannibals = cannibal	hold of hold			vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hold=Theme
2	think speech: other	gerund	cannibals = cannibal not said here				vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	pull	would	Ironside	cannibals = cannibal		across property	vn push-12-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme
4	is	past	cannibals = cannibal		the middle	of the river	tree rules
5	let	past	Ironside	the river not said here			tree rules
6	go	infinitive	the river not said here	the rope			vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location rope=Theme
7	drown	past · passive		cannibals = cannibal		all property	vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient
8	hold			hold			nom hold «act 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/pg71335/13/45/

🌲 Kaffir folk-lore, Story of Ironside and His Sister., sentence 45

The tree

Pragmatics

Kaffir folk-lore, Story of Ironside and His Sister., sentence 45