Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Bird That Made Milk., sentence 19

The Kaffirs are expert in making baskets and mats, but never attempt to dye any of the materials of which they are composed, or otherwise to ornament them.

Who acts: Kaffirs · What happens: be, make, not attempt, not dye, compose, ornament · To what, where: baskets, any, Kaffirs

This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of the Bird That Made Milk.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Kaffirs), 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	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Kaffirs	det
2	Kaffirs	kaffir	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 expert	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 expert	cop
4	expert	expert	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	in	in	SCONJ	_	6 making	mark
6	making	make	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 expert	advcl
7	baskets	basket	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 making	obj
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 mats	cc
9	mats	mat	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 baskets	conj
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 attempt	punct
11	but	but	CCONJ	_	13 attempt	cc
12	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	13 attempt	advmod
13	attempt	attempt	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	4 expert	parataxis
14	to	to	PART	_	15 dye	mark
15	dye	dye	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	13 attempt	xcomp
16	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	15 dye	obj
17	of	of	ADP	_	19 materials	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 materials	det
19	materials	material	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 any	nmod
20	of	of	ADP	_	21 which	case
21	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	24 composed	obl
22	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	24 composed	nsubj:pass
23	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	24 composed	aux:pass
24	composed	compose	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	19 materials	acl:relcl
25	,	,	PUNCT	_	29 ornament	punct
26	or	or	CCONJ	_	29 ornament	cc
27	otherwise	otherwise	ADV	_	29 ornament	advmod
28	to	to	PART	_	29 ornament	mark
29	ornament	ornament	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	13 attempt	conj
30	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	29 ornament	obj
31	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 expert	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	present	the Kaffirs		expert property	tree rules
2	make	gerund	the Kaffirs not said here	baskets and mats		vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset basket=Product
3	not attempt	infinitive				vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
4	not dye	to-infinitive		any of the materials		vn braid-41.2.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent any=Patient
5	compose	present · passive		Kaffirs = kaffir	of the materials	vn create-26.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Result
6	ornament	to-infinitive		Kaffirs = kaffir	otherwise property	vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent they=Destination

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/pg71335/27/19/

🌲 Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Bird That Made Milk., sentence 19

The tree

Pragmatics

Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Bird That Made Milk., sentence 19