Kaffir folk-lore, Proverbs and Figurative Expressions., sentence 58

Hili, or Tikoloshe, is, according to the belief of the Kaffirs, a mischievous being who usually lives in the water, but who goes about as a human dwarf playing tricks upon people.

Who acts: Hili, human dwarf · What happens: be, accord, live, go about, play, believe · To what, where: water, tricks, Kaffirs

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 (Hili, human dwarf), 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	Hili	Hili	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 is	nsubj
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 Tikoloshe	punct
3	or	or	CCONJ	_	4 Tikoloshe	cc
4	Tikoloshe	Tikoloshe	PROPN	Number=Sing	1 Hili	conj
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Hili	punct
6	is	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 is	punct
8	according	accord	VERB	ExtPos=ADP Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	11 belief	case
9	to	to	ADP	_	8 according	fixed
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 belief	det
11	belief	belief	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 ,	obl
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 Kaffirs	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 Kaffirs	det
14	Kaffirs	Kaffir	PROPN	Number=Plur	11 belief	nmod
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 mischievous	punct
16	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 mischievous	det
17	mischievous	mischievous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 Kaffirs	amod
18	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	17 mischievous	advcl
19	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	21 lives	nsubj
20	usually	usually	ADV	_	21 lives	advmod
21	lives	live	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	18 being	parataxis
22	in	in	ADP	_	24 water	case
23	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	24 water	det
24	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 lives	obl
25	,	,	PUNCT	_	28 goes	punct
26	but	but	CCONJ	_	28 goes	cc
27	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	28 goes	nsubj
28	goes	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	21 lives	conj
29	about	about	ADV	_	33 dwarf	advmod
30	as	as	ADP	_	33 dwarf	case
31	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	33 dwarf	det
32	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	33 dwarf	amod
33	dwarf	dwarf	NOUN	Number=Sing	28 goes	obl
34	playing	play	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	33 dwarf	acl
35	tricks	trick	NOUN	Number=Plur	34 playing	obj
36	upon	upon	ADP	_	37 people	case
37	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	34 playing	obl
38	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 is	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	be	present	Hili or Tikoloshe			the belief of the Kaffirs obl	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	accord	gerund					vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent
3	live	present			the water	who nsubj; usually property	vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in water=Location
4	go about	present				as a human dwarf; who nsubj	vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
5	play	gerund	a human dwarf not said here	tricks		upon people	vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent trick=Theme
6	believe			the Kaffirs			nom belief «cognition transitive»: of=patient

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/pg71335/26/58/

🌲 Kaffir folk-lore, Proverbs and Figurative Expressions., sentence 58

The tree

Pragmatics

Kaffir folk-lore, Proverbs and Figurative Expressions., sentence 58