Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Great Chief of the Animals., sentence 19
His councillors were standing at a distance, afraid to approach him, so they sent a monkey to see how he was.
Who acts: councillors, hare · What happens: stand, approach, send, see, be · To what, where: hare, monkey · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of the Great Chief of the Animals.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (councillors, hare), 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 | His | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 2 councillors | nmod:poss |
| 2 | councillors | councillor | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 standing | nsubj |
| 3 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 standing | aux |
| 4 | standing | stand | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 5 | at | at | ADP | _ | 7 distance | case |
| 6 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 7 distance | det |
| 7 | distance | distance | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 standing | obl |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 9 afraid | punct |
| 9 | afraid | afraid | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 distance | amod |
| 10 | to | to | PART | _ | 11 approach | mark |
| 11 | approach | approach | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 9 afraid | xcomp |
| 12 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 approach | obj |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 sent | punct |
| 14 | so | so | ADV | _ | 16 sent | advmod |
| 15 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 sent | nsubj |
| 16 | sent | send | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 standing | conj |
| 17 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 18 monkey | det |
| 18 | monkey | monkey | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 sent | obj |
| 19 | to | to | PART | _ | 20 see | mark |
| 20 | see | see | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 16 sent | advcl |
| 21 | how | how | ADV | PronType=Int | 20 see | ccomp |
| 22 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 21 how | nsubj |
| 23 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 21 how | cop |
| 24 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 standing | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | stand | past · progressive | hare's councillors | at a distance | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at distance=Location | ||||
| 2 | approach | to-infinitive | hare's councillors not said here | hare | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme | ||||
| 3 | send | past | councillors = councillor | a monkey | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent monkey=Theme | ||||
| 4 | see | to-infinitive | councillors = councillor not said here | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | |||||
| 5 | is | past | hare | how property | 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/pg71335/23/19/