Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of the Cannibal Mother and Her Children., sentence 56
As she approached it, the bird got bigger and bigger, until at last when she was very near it, it was as big as a house (i.e., a native hut).
Who acts: valley, bird · What happens: approach, get, be · To what, where: bird, last
This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of the Cannibal Mother and Her Children.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (valley, bird), 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 | As | as | SCONJ | _ | 3 approached | mark |
| 2 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 approached | nsubj |
| 3 | approached | approach | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 approached | obj |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 8 got | punct |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 bird | det |
| 7 | bird | bird | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 got | nsubj |
| 8 | got | get | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 approached | parataxis |
| 9 | bigger | big | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 8 got | xcomp |
| 10 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 11 bigger | cc |
| 11 | bigger | big | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 9 bigger | conj |
| 12 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 big | punct |
| 13 | until | until | SCONJ | _ | 26 big | mark |
| 14 | at | at | ADP | _ | 15 last | case |
| 15 | last | last | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 26 big | obl |
| 16 | when | when | SCONJ | _ | 21 it | mark |
| 17 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 21 it | nsubj |
| 18 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 21 it | cop |
| 19 | very | very | ADV | _ | 21 it | advmod |
| 20 | near | near | ADP | _ | 21 it | case |
| 21 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 15 last | advcl |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 last | punct |
| 23 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 26 big | nsubj |
| 24 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 26 big | cop |
| 25 | as | as | ADV | _ | 26 big | advmod |
| 26 | big | big | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 got | conj |
| 27 | as | as | ADP | _ | 29 house | case |
| 28 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 29 house | det |
| 29 | house | house | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 big | obl |
| 30 | ( | ( | PUNCT | _ | 35 hut | punct |
| 31 | i.e. | i.e. | ADV | _ | 35 hut | advmod |
| 32 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 35 hut | punct |
| 33 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 35 hut | det |
| 34 | native | native | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 35 hut | amod |
| 35 | hut | hut | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 big | parataxis |
| 36 | ) | ) | PUNCT | _ | 35 hut | punct |
| 37 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 approached | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | approach | past | valley | bird | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme | ||||
| 2 | get | past | the bird | big property | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer | ||||
| 3 | is | past | valley | near bird | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | is | past | bird | last | as a house; a native hut parataxis; big property | tree rules |
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/pg71335/15/56/