Kaffir folk-lore, Story of Ironside and His Sister., sentence 7
The plain on which the little girl was put down was near a town in which lived a nation of cannibals who had one leg much longer than the other.
Who acts: plain, town, cannibals · What happens: put down, be, live, have · To what, where: little girl, plain, town, nation, one leg
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 (plain, town, cannibals), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 plain | det |
| 2 | plain | plain | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 town | nsubj |
| 3 | on | on | ADP | _ | 4 which | case |
| 4 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 9 put | obl |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 girl | det |
| 6 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 girl | amod |
| 7 | girl | girl | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 put | nsubj:pass |
| 8 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 put | aux:pass |
| 9 | put | put | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 2 plain | acl:relcl |
| 10 | down | down | ADP | _ | 9 put | compound:prt |
| 11 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 14 town | cop |
| 12 | near | near | ADP | _ | 14 town | case |
| 13 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 14 town | det |
| 14 | town | town | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 15 | in | in | ADP | _ | 16 which | case |
| 16 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 17 lived | nsubj |
| 17 | lived | live | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 14 town | acl:relcl |
| 18 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 19 nation | det |
| 19 | nation | nation | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 lived | obj |
| 20 | of | of | ADP | _ | 21 cannibals | case |
| 21 | cannibals | cannibal | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 nation | nmod |
| 22 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 23 had | nsubj |
| 23 | had | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 21 cannibals | acl:relcl |
| 24 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 25 leg | nummod |
| 25 | leg | leg | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 had | obj |
| 26 | much | much | ADV | _ | 27 longer | advmod |
| 27 | longer | long | ADV | Degree=Cmp | 23 had | advmod |
| 28 | than | than | ADP | _ | 30 other | case |
| 29 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 30 other | det |
| 30 | other | other | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 27 longer | obl |
| 31 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 14 town | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | put down | past · passive | the little girl | the plain | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: subject=Theme on which=Destination | ||||
| 2 | is | past | the plain | a town | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | live | past | a town | a nation of cannibals | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme nation=Location | ||||
| 4 | have | past | cannibals | one leg | long property | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leg=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/pg71335/13/7/