Kaffir folk-lore, Introductory Chapter Regarding the Kaffirs., sentence 101
Before the introduction of firearms the Kaffir used a shield to defend his person.
Who acts: Kaffir · What happens: use, defend, introduce · To what, where: shield, person, firearms
This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Introductory Chapter Regarding the Kaffirs.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Kaffir), 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 | Before | before | ADP | _ | 3 introduction | case |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 introduction | det |
| 3 | introduction | introduction | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 used | obl |
| 4 | of | of | ADP | _ | 5 firearms | case |
| 5 | firearms | firearm | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 introduction | nmod |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 Kaffir | det |
| 7 | Kaffir | Kaffir | PROPN | Number=Sing | 8 used | nsubj |
| 8 | used | use | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 9 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 10 shield | det |
| 10 | shield | shield | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 used | obj |
| 11 | to | to | PART | _ | 12 defend | mark |
| 12 | defend | defend | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 8 used | advcl |
| 13 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 14 person | nmod:poss |
| 14 | person | person | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 defend | obj |
| 15 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 used | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | use | past | the Kaffir | a shield | before the introduction of firearms | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shield=Patient | |||
| 2 | defend | to-infinitive | the Kaffir not said here | Kaffir's person | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent person=Beneficiary | ||||
| 3 | introduce | firearms | nom introduction «act 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/pg71335/2/101/