Kaffir folk-lore, Introductory Chapter Regarding the Kaffirs., sentence 131
These spirits are those of their deceased chiefs, the greatest of whom has power over lightning.
What happens: be, decease, have · To what, where: those, power, lightning
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: 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 | These | this | DET | Number=Plur PronType=Dem | 2 spirits | det |
| 2 | spirits | spirit | NOUN | Number=Plur | 11 greatest | nsubj |
| 3 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 those | cop |
| 4 | those | that | PRON | Number=Plur PronType=Dem | 2 spirits | nmod |
| 5 | of | of | ADP | _ | 8 chiefs | case |
| 6 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 8 chiefs | nmod:poss |
| 7 | deceased | decease | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 8 chiefs | amod |
| 8 | chiefs | chief | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 those | nmod |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 11 greatest | punct |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 greatest | det |
| 11 | greatest | great | ADJ | Degree=Sup | root | root |
| 12 | of | of | ADP | _ | 13 whom | case |
| 13 | whom | whom | PRON | PronType=Rel | 14 has | nsubj |
| 14 | has | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 11 greatest | parataxis |
| 15 | power | power | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 has | obj |
| 16 | over | over | ADP | _ | 17 lightning | case |
| 17 | lightning | lightning | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 has | obl |
| 18 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 11 greatest | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | present | those | of spirits's deceased chiefs | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | decease | participle | vn die-42.4 «NP V»: agent=Patient | ||||||
| 3 | have | present | power | lightning | whom nsubj | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent power=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/pg71335/2/131/