Kaffir folk-lore, Proverbs and Figurative Expressions., sentence 167
A mouse can be skinned without any one seeing it, but an ox cannot.
Who acts: one · What happens: skin, see · To what, where: mouse
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), 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 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 mouse | det |
| 2 | mouse | mouse | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 skinned | nsubj:pass |
| 3 | can | can | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 5 skinned | aux |
| 4 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 5 skinned | aux:pass |
| 5 | skinned | skin | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 6 | without | without | ADP | _ | 8 one | case |
| 7 | any | any | DET | PronType=Ind | 8 one | det |
| 8 | one | one | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 skinned | obl |
| 9 | seeing | see | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 8 one | acl |
| 10 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 9 seeing | obj |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 can | punct |
| 12 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 15 can | cc |
| 13 | an | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 14 ox | det |
| 14 | ox | ox | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 can | nsubj |
| 15 | can | can | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 5 skinned | conj |
| 16 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 15 can | advmod |
| 17 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 skinned | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | skin | can · passive | a mouse | without any one | vn hurt-40.8.3-2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient | ||||
| 2 | see | gerund | any one not said here | mouse | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus |
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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