Kaffir folk-lore, Introductory Chapter Regarding the Kaffirs., sentence 78
Before the advent of the white man, the Kaffirs knew nothing of letters or of any signs by which ideas could be expressed.
Who acts: Kaffirs, signs · What happens: know, express · To what, where: nothing, ideas
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 (Kaffirs, signs), 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 | Before | before | ADP | _ | 3 advent | case |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 advent | det |
| 3 | advent | advent | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 knew | obl |
| 4 | of | of | ADP | _ | 7 man | case |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 man | det |
| 6 | white | white | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 man | amod |
| 7 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 advent | nmod |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 advent | punct |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 Kaffirs | det |
| 10 | Kaffirs | Kaffir | PROPN | Number=Plur | 11 knew | nsubj |
| 11 | knew | know | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 12 | nothing | nothing | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Neg | 11 knew | obj |
| 13 | of | of | ADP | _ | 14 letters | case |
| 14 | letters | letter | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 nothing | nmod |
| 15 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 18 signs | cc |
| 16 | of | of | ADP | _ | 18 signs | case |
| 17 | any | any | DET | PronType=Ind | 18 signs | det |
| 18 | signs | sign | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 letters | conj |
| 19 | by | by | ADP | _ | 20 which | case |
| 20 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 24 expressed | obl |
| 21 | ideas | idea | NOUN | Number=Plur | 24 expressed | nsubj:pass |
| 22 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 24 expressed | aux |
| 23 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 24 expressed | aux:pass |
| 24 | expressed | express | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 18 signs | acl:relcl |
| 25 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 11 knew | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | know | past | the Kaffirs | nothing of letters or any signs | before the advent of the white man | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer nothing=Stimulus | |||
| 2 | express | could · passive | any signs | ideas | vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme |
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/pg71335/2/78/