Kaffir folk-lore, Introductory Chapter Regarding the Kaffirs., sentence 169
But old men have told me, when I inquired the object of this act, that “it was for Qamata.”
Who acts: I, that · What happens: tell, inquire, be · To what, where: old men, me, object · Speech: someone speaks here
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 (I, that), 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 | But | but | CCONJ | _ | 5 told | cc |
| 2 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 men | amod |
| 3 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 told | nsubj:pass |
| 4 | have | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 told | aux |
| 5 | told | tell | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 6 | me | I | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 5 told | iobj |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 inquired | punct |
| 8 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 10 inquired | advmod |
| 9 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 10 inquired | nsubj |
| 10 | inquired | inquire | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 told | conj |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 object | det |
| 12 | object | object | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 inquired | obj |
| 13 | of | of | ADP | _ | 15 act | case |
| 14 | this | this | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 15 act | det |
| 15 | act | act | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 object | nmod |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 22 Qamata | punct |
| 17 | that | that | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 22 Qamata | nsubj |
| 18 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 22 Qamata | punct |
| 19 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 22 Qamata | nsubj |
| 20 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 22 Qamata | cop |
| 21 | for | for | ADP | _ | 22 Qamata | case |
| 22 | Qamata | Qamata | PROPN | Number=Sing | 12 object | appos |
| 23 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 told | punct |
| 24 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 5 told | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | tell speech: assert | present · perfect · passive | old men | me | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient i=Topic | ||||
| 2 | inquire speech: other | past | I | the object of this act | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent object=Recipient | ||||
| 3 | is in a quote | past | that | for Qamata; object nsubj | tree rules |
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/pg71335/2/169/