Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Hare., sentence 79
He said to the bushbuck: “Can I take this little piece of meat?”
Who acts: pot · What happens: say, take · To what, where: bushbuck, little piece · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of the Hare.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (pot), 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 | He | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 said | nsubj |
| 2 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | to | to | ADP | _ | 5 bushbuck | case |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 bushbuck | det |
| 5 | bushbuck | bushbuck | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 said | obl |
| 6 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 10 take | punct |
| 7 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 10 take | punct |
| 8 | Can | can | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 10 take | aux |
| 9 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 10 take | nsubj |
| 10 | take | take | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 2 said | ccomp |
| 11 | this | this | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 13 piece | det |
| 12 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 13 piece | amod |
| 13 | piece | piece | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 take | obj |
| 14 | of | of | ADP | _ | 15 meat | case |
| 15 | meat | meat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 piece | nmod |
| 16 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 10 take | punct |
| 17 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 10 take | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: ask | past | pot | the bushbuck | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to bushbuck=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 2 | take in a quote | can | pot | this little piece of meat | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent piece=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.
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