Kaffir folk-lore, Introductory Chapter Regarding the Kaffirs., sentence 189

Sooner or later he would fail to cause rain to fall when it was needed, or warriors whom he had made invulnerable would be struck down, or something else would happen which would cause him to be regarded as an impostor.

Who acts: finder, rain, something · What happens: fail, not cause, fall, need, make, strike down · To what, where: rain, supremacy, warriors, finder

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 (finder, rain, something), 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	Sooner	soon	ADV	Degree=Cmp	6 fail	advmod
2	or	or	CCONJ	_	3 later	cc
3	later	late	ADV	Degree=Cmp	1 Sooner	conj
4	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 fail	nsubj
5	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 fail	aux
6	fail	fail	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	to	to	PART	_	8 cause	mark
8	cause	cause	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 fail	xcomp
9	rain	rain	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 cause	obj
10	to	to	PART	_	11 fall	mark
11	fall	fall	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 cause	xcomp
12	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	15 needed	advmod
13	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 needed	nsubj:pass
14	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	15 needed	aux:pass
15	needed	need	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 fall	advcl
16	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 warriors	punct
17	or	or	CCONJ	_	18 warriors	cc
18	warriors	warrior	NOUN	Number=Plur	26 struck	nsubj:pass
19	whom	whom	PRON	PronType=Rel	22 made	obl
20	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	22 made	nsubj
21	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	22 made	aux
22	made	make	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	18 warriors	acl:relcl
23	invulnerable	invulnerable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	22 made	xcomp
24	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	26 struck	aux
25	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	26 struck	aux:pass
26	struck	strike	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 fail	conj
27	down	down	ADP	_	26 struck	compound:prt
28	,	,	PUNCT	_	33 happen	punct
29	or	or	CCONJ	_	33 happen	cc
30	something	something	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	33 happen	nsubj
31	else	else	ADV	_	30 something	advmod
32	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	33 happen	aux
33	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 fail	parataxis
34	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	36 cause	nsubj
35	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	36 cause	aux
36	cause	cause	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	33 happen	conj
37	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	36 cause	obj
38	to	to	PART	_	40 regarded	mark
39	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	40 regarded	aux:pass
40	regarded	regard	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	36 cause	advcl
41	as	as	ADP	_	43 impostor	case
42	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	43 impostor	det
43	impostor	impostor	NOUN	Number=Sing	40 regarded	obl
44	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 fail	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	fail	would	finder		soon property	vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
2	not cause	to-infinitive	finder not said here	rain		tree rules
3	fall	to-infinitive	rain not said here			vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme
4	need	past · passive		supremacy		vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: subject=Theme
5	make	past · perfect	finder	warriors	invulnerable property	vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
6	strike down	would · passive		warriors		vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient
7	happen	would	something			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
8	cause	would		finder	which nsubj	vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition he=Patient
9	regard	to-infinitive · passive			as a impostor	vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP PP.value»: as impostor=Value

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/pg71335/2/189/

🌲 Kaffir folk-lore, Introductory Chapter Regarding the Kaffirs., sentence 189

The tree

Pragmatics

Kaffir folk-lore, Introductory Chapter Regarding the Kaffirs., sentence 189