Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Kenkebe., sentence 3
There was living at that place a man called Kenkebe, and one day his wife said to him, “My husband, go to my father and ask him to give us some corn.”
Who acts: wife, husband · What happens: be, live, call, say, go, ask · To what, where: place, man, Kenkebe, husband, corn, us · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Kenkebe.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wife, husband), 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 | There | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 2 was | expl |
| 2 | was | be | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | living | live | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 2 was | xcomp |
| 4 | at | at | ADP | _ | 6 place | case |
| 5 | that | that | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 6 place | det |
| 6 | place | place | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 living | obl |
| 7 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 8 man | det |
| 8 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 place | appos |
| 9 | called | call | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 8 man | acl |
| 10 | Kenkebe | Kenkebe | PROPN | Number=Sing | 9 called | xcomp |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 said | punct |
| 12 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 said | cc |
| 13 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 14 day | nummod |
| 14 | day | day | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 said | obl:unmarked |
| 15 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 16 wife | nmod:poss |
| 16 | wife | wife | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 said | nsubj |
| 17 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 was | parataxis |
| 18 | to | to | ADP | _ | 19 him | case |
| 19 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 17 said | obl |
| 20 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 25 go | punct |
| 21 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 25 go | punct |
| 22 | My | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 23 husband | nmod:poss |
| 23 | husband | husband | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 go | nsubj |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 23 husband | punct |
| 25 | go | go | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 17 said | ccomp |
| 26 | to | to | ADP | _ | 28 father | case |
| 27 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 28 father | nmod:poss |
| 28 | father | father | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 go | obl |
| 29 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 30 ask | cc |
| 30 | ask | ask | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 25 go | conj |
| 31 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 30 ask | obj |
| 32 | to | to | PART | _ | 33 give | mark |
| 33 | give | give | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 30 ask | xcomp |
| 34 | us | we | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 33 give | iobj |
| 35 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 36 corn | det |
| 36 | corn | corn | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 give | obj |
| 37 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 25 go | punct |
| 38 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 25 go | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | be | past | there | tree rules | |||||
| 2 | live | gerund | that place | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at place=Location | |||||
| 3 | call | participle | a man not said here | Kenkebe xcomp | vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 4 | say speech: assert | past | Kenkebe's wife | Kenkebe | day | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to he=Recipient clause=Topic | |||
| 5 | go in a quote | infinitive | My husband | to my father | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to father=Initial_Location | ||||
| 6 | ask speech: ask in a quote | infinitive | My husband not said here | husband | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 7 | give not said to happen, in a quote | to-infinitive | My husband not said here | some corn | us | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent we=Recipient corn=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.
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