Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Girl and the Mbulu., sentence 28

They said: “The tail of a mbulu will want mice and fat,” so they set snares to catch the mice.

Who acts: girls, tail · What happens: say, want, set, catch · To what, where: mice, snares · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of the Girl and the Mbulu.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (girls, tail), 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 said	nsubj
2	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	:	:	PUNCT	_	11 want	punct
4	“	"	PUNCT	_	11 want	punct
5	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 tail	det
6	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 want	nsubj
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 mbulu	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 mbulu	det
9	mbulu	mbulu	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 tail	nmod
10	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 want	aux
11	want	want	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 said	ccomp
12	mice	mouse	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 want	obj
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 fat	cc
14	fat	fat	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 mice	conj
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 want	punct
16	”	"	PUNCT	_	11 want	punct
17	so	so	ADV	_	19 set	advmod
18	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 set	nsubj
19	set	set	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 said	advcl
20	snares	snare	NOUN	Number=Plur	19 set	obj
21	to	to	PART	_	22 catch	mark
22	catch	catch	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	19 set	xcomp
23	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	24 mice	det
24	mice	mouse	NOUN	Number=Plur	22 catch	obj
25	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 said	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	say speech: assert	past	girls = girl		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	want in a quote	future	the tail of a mbulu	mice and fat	vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot mouse=Theme
3	set	past	girls = girl	snares	tree rules
4	catch	to-infinitive	girls = girl not said here	the mice	vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mouse=Theme

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/pg71335/16/28/

🌲 Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Girl and the Mbulu., sentence 28

The tree

Pragmatics

Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Girl and the Mbulu., sentence 28