Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Mbulukazi., sentence 53
Its actions attracted the notice of the men, and they said: “Surely this ox means something, why is it doing this?”
Who acts: actions, ox · What happens: attract, say, mean, do, act, notice · To what, where: notice, something, this, men · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Mbulukazi.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (actions, ox), 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 | Its | its | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 2 actions | nmod:poss |
| 2 | actions | action | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 attracted | nsubj |
| 3 | attracted | attract | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 notice | det |
| 5 | notice | notice | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 attracted | obj |
| 6 | of | of | ADP | _ | 8 men | case |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 men | det |
| 8 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 notice | nmod |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 said | punct |
| 10 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 12 said | cc |
| 11 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 12 said | nsubj |
| 12 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 attracted | conj |
| 13 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 18 means | punct |
| 14 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 18 means | punct |
| 15 | Surely | surely | ADV | _ | 18 means | advmod |
| 16 | this | this | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 17 ox | det |
| 17 | ox | ox | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 means | nsubj |
| 18 | means | mean | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 12 said | ccomp |
| 19 | something | something | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Ind | 18 means | obj |
| 20 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 doing | punct |
| 21 | why | why | ADV | PronType=Int | 24 doing | advmod |
| 22 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 24 doing | aux |
| 23 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 24 doing | nsubj |
| 24 | doing | do | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 19 something | conj |
| 25 | this | this | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 24 doing | obj |
| 26 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 24 doing | punct |
| 27 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 3 attracted | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | attract | past | ox's actions | the notice of the men | vn lure-59.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent notice=Patient | ||||
| 2 | say speech: ask | past | actions = action | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 3 | mean in a quote | present | this ox | something | surely property | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent something=Topic | |||
| 4 | do in a quote | present · progressive | ox | this | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent this=Eventuality | ||||
| 5 | act | ox | nom action «act intransitive»: poss=agent | ||||||
| 6 | notice | the men | nom notice «communication transitive»: of=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/pg71335/17/53/