Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Bird That Made Milk., sentence 32

It is not unlikely that the Xosa belief in a water-spirit which has power to charm people and entice them into rivers to their destruction, may have originated in the fact of their having come from a country where these destructive animals were common, as the spirit and the reptile have the same name.

Who acts: water spirit, people, fact, destructive animals, spirit · What happens: not be, have, entice, originate, come, be · To what, where: power, people, rivers, Xosa belief, fact, country

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 (water spirit, people, fact, destructive animals), 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	4 unlikely	expl
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 unlikely	cop
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 unlikely	advmod
4	unlikely	unlikely	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	that	that	SCONJ	_	31 originated	mark
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 belief	det
7	Xosa	Xosa	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 belief	compound
8	belief	belief	NOUN	Number=Sing	31 originated	nsubj:pass
9	in	in	ADP	_	13 spirit	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 spirit	det
11	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 spirit	compound
12	-	-	PUNCT	_	11 water	punct
13	spirit	spirit	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 belief	nmod
14	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	15 has	nsubj
15	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 spirit	acl:relcl
16	power	power	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 has	obj
17	to	to	PART	_	19 people	mark
18	charm	charm	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 people	compound
19	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 power	appos
20	and	and	CCONJ	_	21 entice	cc
21	entice	entice	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 has	conj
22	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	21 entice	obj
23	into	into	ADP	_	24 rivers	case
24	rivers	river	NOUN	Number=Plur	21 entice	obl
25	to	to	ADP	_	27 destruction	case
26	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	27 destruction	nmod:poss
27	destruction	destruction	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 entice	obl
28	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 belief	punct
29	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	31 originated	aux
30	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	31 originated	aux
31	originated	originate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 unlikely	advcl
32	in	in	ADP	_	34 fact	case
33	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	34 fact	det
34	fact	fact	NOUN	Number=Sing	31 originated	obl
35	of	of	SCONJ	_	37 having	mark
36	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	37 having	nsubj
37	having	have	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	34 fact	acl
38	come	come	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	37 having	xcomp
39	from	from	ADP	_	41 country	case
40	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	41 country	det
41	country	country	NOUN	Number=Sing	38 come	obl
42	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	47 common	advmod
43	these	this	DET	Number=Plur PronType=Dem	45 animals	det
44	destructive	destructive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	45 animals	amod
45	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	47 common	nsubj
46	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	47 common	cop
47	common	common	ADJ	Degree=Pos	41 country	acl:relcl
48	,	,	PUNCT	_	51 spirit	punct
49	as	as	ADP	_	51 spirit	case
50	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	51 spirit	det
51	spirit	spirit	NOUN	Number=Sing	47 common	obl
52	and	and	CCONJ	_	54 reptile	cc
53	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	54 reptile	det
54	reptile	reptile	NOUN	Number=Sing	51 spirit	conj
55	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	51 spirit	acl
56	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	58 name	det
57	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	58 name	amod
58	name	name	NOUN	Number=Sing	55 have	obj
59	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 unlikely	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	not is	present				unlikely property	tree rules
2	have	present	a water spirit	power			vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent power=Patient
3	entice	present	a water spirit not said here	people		into rivers result; to people's destruction	vn lure-59.3 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent they=Patient into river=Result
4	originate	may · perfect · passive		the Xosa belief in a water spirit	the fact		vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient
5	have	gerund	people	the fact not said here			tree rules
6	come	participle	the fact not said here		a country		vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme from country=Initial_Location
7	is	past	this destructive animals			as the spirit and the reptile; common property	tree rules
8	have	present	the spirit and the reptile not said here	the same name			vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent name=Patient
9	destroy		people				nom destruction «act transitive»: 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/pg71335/27/32/

🌲 Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Bird That Made Milk., sentence 32

The tree

Pragmatics

Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Bird That Made Milk., sentence 32