Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Girl and the Mbulu., sentence 32
They said: “The tail of a mbulu will seek milk,” so they dug a hole in the ground, put milk in it, and required every one in the village to jump over the hole.
Who acts: snares, tail · What happens: say, seek, dig, put, require, jump · To what, where: milk, hole, ground, tail, one, village · 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 (snares, 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 seek | punct |
| 4 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 11 seek | punct |
| 5 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 tail | det |
| 6 | tail | tail | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 seek | 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 seek | aux |
| 11 | seek | seek | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 2 said | ccomp |
| 12 | milk | milk | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 seek | obj |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 11 seek | punct |
| 14 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 11 seek | punct |
| 15 | so | so | ADV | _ | 17 dug | advmod |
| 16 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 17 dug | nsubj |
| 17 | dug | dig | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 said | conj |
| 18 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 19 hole | det |
| 19 | hole | hole | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 dug | obj |
| 20 | in | in | ADP | _ | 22 ground | case |
| 21 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 22 ground | det |
| 22 | ground | ground | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 hole | nmod |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 put | punct |
| 24 | put | put | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 17 dug | advcl |
| 25 | milk | milk | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 put | obj |
| 26 | in | in | ADP | _ | 27 it | case |
| 27 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 24 put | obl |
| 28 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 30 required | punct |
| 29 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 30 required | cc |
| 30 | required | require | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 said | conj |
| 31 | every | every | DET | PronType=Tot | 32 one | det |
| 32 | one | one | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 required | obj |
| 33 | in | in | ADP | _ | 35 village | case |
| 34 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 35 village | det |
| 35 | village | village | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 required | obl |
| 36 | to | to | PART | _ | 37 jump | mark |
| 37 | jump | jump | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 30 required | advcl |
| 38 | over | over | ADP | _ | 40 hole | case |
| 39 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 40 hole | det |
| 40 | hole | hole | NOUN | Number=Sing | 37 jump | obl |
| 41 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 said | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | past | snares = snare | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | seek in a quote | future | the tail of a mbulu | milk | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent milk=Theme | ||||
| 3 | dig | past | snares = snare | a hole | the ground | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent hole=Theme in ground=Location | |||
| 4 | put | infinitive | snares = snare not said here | milk | tail | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent milk=Theme in it=Destination | |||
| 5 | require | past | snares = snare not said here | every one | the village | vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme one=Precondition | |||
| 6 | jump | to-infinitive | snares = snare not said here | the hole | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over hole=Trajectory |
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/pg71335/16/32/