Kaffir folk-lore, Proverbs and Figurative Expressions., sentence 136
It means, a man’s actions, not his talk and boasting, are what people judge of his greatness by.
Who acts: One, people, man · What happens: mean, be, judge, act, talk · To what, where: actions
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 (One, people, man), 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 | It | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 means | nsubj |
| 2 | means | mean | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 actions | punct |
| 4 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 5 man | det |
| 5 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 actions | nmod:poss |
| 6 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 5 man | case |
| 7 | actions | action | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 means | obj |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 11 talk | punct |
| 9 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 11 talk | advmod |
| 10 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 11 talk | nmod:poss |
| 11 | talk | talk | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 actions | nmod |
| 12 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 13 boasting | cc |
| 13 | boasting | boasting | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 talk | conj |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 what | punct |
| 15 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 16 what | cop |
| 16 | what | what | PRON | PronType=Rel | 2 means | obl |
| 17 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 18 judge | nsubj |
| 18 | judge | judge | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 16 what | acl:relcl |
| 19 | of | of | ADP | _ | 21 greatness | case |
| 20 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 21 greatness | nmod:poss |
| 21 | greatness | greatness | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 judge | obl |
| 22 | by | by | ADP | _ | 18 judge | obl |
| 23 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 means | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | mean | present | One | a man's actions man's talk and boasting | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent action=Topic | ||||
| 2 | is a | present | tree rules | ||||||
| 3 | judge | present | people | of man's greatness | vn estimate-34.2-1-1 «NP V NP.attribute»: agent=Agent of greatness=Theme | ||||
| 4 | act | a man | nom action «act intransitive»: poss=agent | ||||||
| 5 | talk | man | nom talk «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |
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/pg71335/26/136/