Kaffir folk-lore, Proverbs and Figurative Expressions., sentence 120
He led in person the attack upon Grahamstown, and only retreated after the flower of his forces was swept away.
Who acts: Nkele · What happens: lead, retreat, sweep away · To what, where: attack
This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Proverbs and Figurative Expressions.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Nkele), 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 led | nsubj |
| 2 | led | lead | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | in | in | ADP | _ | 4 person | case |
| 4 | person | person | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 led | obl |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 attack | det |
| 6 | attack | attack | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 led | obj |
| 7 | upon | upon | ADP | _ | 8 Grahamstown | case |
| 8 | Grahamstown | Grahamstown | PROPN | Number=Sing | 6 attack | nmod |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 retreated | punct |
| 10 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 12 retreated | cc |
| 11 | only | only | ADV | _ | 12 retreated | advmod |
| 12 | retreated | retreat | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 2 led | parataxis |
| 13 | after | after | ADP | _ | 15 flower | case |
| 14 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 flower | det |
| 15 | flower | flower | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 swept | obl |
| 16 | of | of | ADP | _ | 18 forces | case |
| 17 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 18 forces | nmod:poss |
| 18 | forces | force | NOUN | Number=Plur | 15 flower | nmod |
| 19 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 20 swept | aux:pass |
| 20 | swept | sweep | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 12 retreated | conj |
| 21 | away | away | ADV | _ | 20 swept | advmod |
| 22 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 led | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | lead | past | Nkele | the attack | in person; upon Grahamstown | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent attack=Theme in person=Destination | |||
| 2 | retreat | participle | vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute | ||||||
| 3 | sweep away | past · passive | after the flower of Nkele's forces | away property | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V» |
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/pg71335/26/120/