Kaffir folk-lore, Introductory Chapter Regarding the Kaffirs., sentence 229
They are not strict observers of truth, and, though not pilferers, they are addicted to cattle lifting.
Who acts: skins, cattle · What happens: not be, addict, lift · To what, where: strict observers, skins
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 (skins, cattle), 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 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 observers | nsubj |
| 2 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 observers | cop |
| 3 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 5 observers | advmod |
| 4 | strict | strict | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 observers | amod |
| 5 | observers | observer | NOUN | Number=Plur | root | root |
| 6 | of | of | ADP | _ | 7 truth | case |
| 7 | truth | truth | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 observers | nmod |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 addicted | punct |
| 9 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 addicted | cc |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 addicted | punct |
| 11 | though | though | SCONJ | _ | 17 addicted | mark |
| 12 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 13 pilferers | advmod |
| 13 | pilferers | pilferer | NOUN | Number=Plur | 17 addicted | obl |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 pilferers | punct |
| 15 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 17 addicted | nsubj |
| 16 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 17 addicted | aux:pass |
| 17 | addicted | addict | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 5 observers | conj |
| 18 | to | to | ADP | _ | 19 cattle | case |
| 19 | cattle | cattle | NOUN | Number=Plur | 17 addicted | obl |
| 20 | lifting | lift | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 19 cattle | acl |
| 21 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 observers | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not is a | present | skins = skin | strict observers | of truth | tree rules | |||
| 2 | addict | present · passive | skins = skin | to cattle; pilferers obl | vn addict-96 «NP V NP PP.Theme»: subject=Patient to cattle=Theme | ||||
| 3 | lift | gerund | cattle not said here | vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
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/pg71335/2/229/