Kaffir folk-lore, Introductory Chapter Regarding the Kaffirs., sentence 65

What appears in writing to be only one word, is often really three or four, but as in another combination these would change their positions, and as very frequently a single letter represents a word, it would create much greater confusion to separate them than to write them as one.

Who acts: these, single letter, word · What happens: appear, be, change, represent, create, separate · To what, where: writing, one word, three, positions, word, greater confusion

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 (these, single letter, word), 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	2 appears	nsubj
2	appears	appear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	4 writing	case
4	writing	writing	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 appears	obl
5	to	to	PART	_	9 word	mark
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	9 word	cop
7	only	only	ADV	_	8 one	advmod
8	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	9 word	nummod
9	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 appears	parataxis
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 word	punct
11	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	14 three	cop
12	often	often	ADV	_	14 three	advmod
13	really	really	ADV	_	14 three	advmod
14	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	9 word	parataxis
15	or	or	CCONJ	_	16 four	cc
16	four	four	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	14 three	conj
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	25 change	punct
18	but	but	CCONJ	_	25 change	cc
19	as	as	ADP	_	22 combination	case
20	in	in	ADP	_	22 combination	case
21	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	22 combination	det
22	combination	combination	NOUN	Number=Sing	25 change	obl
23	these	this	PRON	Number=Plur PronType=Dem	25 change	nsubj
24	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	25 change	aux
25	change	change	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 appears	parataxis
26	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	27 positions	nmod:poss
27	positions	position	NOUN	Number=Plur	25 change	obj
28	,	,	PUNCT	_	36 represents	punct
29	and	and	CCONJ	_	36 represents	cc
30	as	as	ADV	_	31 very	advmod
31	very	very	ADV	_	32 frequently	advmod
32	frequently	frequently	ADV	_	36 represents	advmod
33	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	35 letter	det
34	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	35 letter	amod
35	letter	letter	NOUN	Number=Sing	36 represents	nsubj
36	represents	represent	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	25 change	advcl
37	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	38 word	det
38	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	36 represents	obj
39	,	,	PUNCT	_	42 create	punct
40	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	42 create	nsubj
41	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	42 create	aux
42	create	create	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	36 represents	conj
43	much	much	ADV	_	44 greater	advmod
44	greater	great	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	45 confusion	amod
45	confusion	confusion	NOUN	Number=Sing	42 create	obj
46	to	to	PART	_	47 separate	mark
47	separate	separate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	42 create	advcl
48	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	47 separate	obj
49	than	than	SCONJ	_	51 write	mark
50	to	to	PART	_	51 write	mark
51	write	write	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	47 separate	advcl
52	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	51 write	obj
53	as	as	ADP	_	54 one	case
54	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	51 write	obl
55	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 appears	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	appear	present			writing	What nsubj	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in writing=Location
2	is a	to-infinitive		one word			tree rules
3	is a	present		three		four conj; often property	tree rules
4	change	would	these	combinations's positions		as another combination	vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent position=Patient
5	represent	present	a single letter	a word		frequently property	vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot word=Theme
6	create	would	word	greater confusion			vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent confusion=Result
7	separate	to-infinitive	word not said here	positions = position			vn separate-23.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient
8	write	to-infinitive	word not said here	positions = position		as one	vn create-26.4-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent they=Result as one=Attribute

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/pg71335/2/65/

🌲 Kaffir folk-lore, Introductory Chapter Regarding the Kaffirs., sentence 65

The tree

Pragmatics

Kaffir folk-lore, Introductory Chapter Regarding the Kaffirs., sentence 65