Kaffir folk-lore, Introductory Chapter Regarding the Kaffirs., sentence 197
It may be only an ordinary snake, he will add, but it is not advisable to run any risk, lest harm should befall his house.
Who acts: form, Kaffir, it, harm · What happens: be, add, not be, run, befall · To what, where: ordinary snake, risk, house
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 (form, Kaffir, it, harm), 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 | It | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 7 snake | nsubj |
| 2 | may | may | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 7 snake | aux |
| 3 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 7 snake | cop |
| 4 | only | only | ADV | _ | 7 snake | advmod |
| 5 | an | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 7 snake | det |
| 6 | ordinary | ordinary | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 snake | amod |
| 7 | snake | snake | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 add | parataxis |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 snake | punct |
| 9 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 add | nsubj |
| 10 | will | will | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 11 add | aux |
| 11 | add | add | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 12 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 advisable | punct |
| 13 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 17 advisable | cc |
| 14 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 17 advisable | nsubj |
| 15 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 17 advisable | cop |
| 16 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 17 advisable | advmod |
| 17 | advisable | advisable | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 11 add | parataxis |
| 18 | to | to | PART | _ | 19 run | mark |
| 19 | run | run | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 17 advisable | csubj |
| 20 | any | any | DET | PronType=Ind | 21 risk | det |
| 21 | risk | risk | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 run | obj |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 befall | punct |
| 23 | lest | lest | SCONJ | _ | 26 befall | mark |
| 24 | harm | harm | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 befall | nsubj |
| 25 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 26 befall | aux |
| 26 | befall | befall | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 11 add | conj |
| 27 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 28 house | nmod:poss |
| 28 | house | house | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 befall | obj |
| 29 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 11 add | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | may | form | a ordinary snake | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | add speech: assert | future | Kaffir | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 3 | not is | present | it | advisable property | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | run | to-infinitive | any risk | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme risk=Trajectory | |||||
| 5 | befall | should | harm | Kaffir's house | 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/pg71335/2/197/