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home / corpora / tales / Kaffir folk-lore / Story of the Cannibal’s Wonderful Bird. / 23

Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Cannibal’s Wonderful Bird., sentence 23

The girl’s brother was among those boys, and he thought the bird sang like his sister, but he was afraid to ask the cannibal to let him see.

Who acts: brother, Sing, bird, cannibal · What happens: be, think, sing, ask, let, see · To what, where: cannibal · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of the Cannibal’s Wonderful Bird.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (brother, Sing, bird, 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

detnmod:posscasensubjcopcasedetpunctccnsubjparataxisdetnsubjccompcasenmod:possoblpunctccnsubjcopconjmarkxcompdetobjmarkxcompobjxcomppunctrootTheDETgirlNOUN’sPARTbrotherNOUNwasAUXamongADPthoseDETboysNOUN,PUNCTandCCONJhePRONthoughtVERBtheDETbirdNOUNsangVERBlikeADPhisPRONsisterNOUN,PUNCTbutCCONJhePRONwasAUXafraidADJtoPARTaskVERBtheDETcannibalNOUNtoPARTletVERBhimPRONseeVERB.PUNCT
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
#wordlemmaUPOSfeaturesheadrelation
1ThetheDETDefinite=Def PronType=Art2 girldet
2girlgirlNOUNNumber=Sing4 brothernmod:poss
3’s'sPART_2 girlcase
4brotherbrotherNOUNNumber=Sing8 boysnsubj
5wasbeAUXMood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin8 boyscop
6amongamongADP_8 boyscase
7thosethatDETNumber=Plur PronType=Dem8 boysdet
8boysboyNOUNNumber=Plurrootroot
9,,PUNCT_12 thoughtpunct
10andandCCONJ_12 thoughtcc
11hehePRONCase=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs12 thoughtnsubj
12thoughtthinkVERBMood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin8 boysparataxis
13thetheDETDefinite=Def PronType=Art14 birddet
14birdbirdNOUNNumber=Sing15 sangnsubj
15sangsingVERBMood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin12 thoughtccomp
16likelikeADP_18 sistercase
17hishisPRONCase=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs18 sisternmod:poss
18sistersisterNOUNNumber=Sing15 sangobl
19,,PUNCT_23 afraidpunct
20butbutCCONJ_23 afraidcc
21hehePRONCase=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs23 afraidnsubj
22wasbeAUXMood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin23 afraidcop
23afraidafraidADJDegree=Pos12 thoughtconj
24totoPART_25 askmark
25askaskVERBVerbForm=Inf23 afraidxcomp
26thetheDETDefinite=Def PronType=Art27 cannibaldet
27cannibalcannibalNOUNNumber=Sing25 askobj
28totoPART_29 letmark
29letletVERBVerbForm=Inf25 askxcomp
30himhePRONCase=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs29 letobj
31seeseeVERBVerbForm=Inf29 letxcomp
32..PUNCT_8 boyspunct

Pragmatics

#verbtense, moodwhowhat, whomto whomwherewhenotherroles by
1ispastthe girl's brotheramong that boystree rules
2think speech: otherpastSingvn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
3sing speech: expresspastthe birdlike Sing's sistervn sound_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location
4ispastSingafraid propertytree rules
5ask speech: askto-infinitiveSing not said herethe cannibalvn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S_INF»: agent=Agent cannibal=Recipient clause=Topic
6let not said to happento-infinitivethe cannibal not said herecannibaltree rules
7seeinfinitivecannibal not said herevn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: 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/pg71335/14/23/