Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Tangalimlibo., sentence 2

Sometimes it happens that native girls are employed as nurses by Europeans, and that little children are taught by them to sing, or rather chant the song of the cock, so that this story may even be like “an old acquaintance with a cheerful face” to many of our own race who have grown up on the frontier.

Who acts: it, Europeans, that, girls, little children, story · What happens: happen, employ, child, teach, sing, chant · To what, where: native girls, little children, song, many, frontier · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Tangalimlibo.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (it, Europeans, that, girls), 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	Sometimes	sometimes	ADV	PronType=Ind	3 happens	advmod
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 happens	nsubj
3	happens	happen	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	that	that	SCONJ	_	8 employed	mark
5	native	native	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 girls	amod
6	girls	girl	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 employed	nsubj:pass
7	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 employed	aux:pass
8	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 happens	advcl
9	as	as	ADP	_	10 nurses	case
10	nurses	nurse	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 employed	obl
11	by	by	ADP	_	12 Europeans	case
12	Europeans	European	PROPN	Number=Plur	8 employed	obl
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 taught	punct
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	19 taught	cc
15	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	17 children	nsubj
16	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 children	amod
17	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	19 taught	nsubj:pass
18	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	19 taught	aux:pass
19	taught	teach	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 happens	conj
20	by	by	ADP	_	21 them	case
21	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 taught	obl
22	to	to	PART	_	23 sing	mark
23	sing	sing	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	19 taught	xcomp
24	,	,	PUNCT	_	27 chant	punct
25	or	or	CCONJ	_	27 chant	cc
26	rather	rather	ADV	_	27 chant	advmod
27	chant	chant	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	19 taught	conj
28	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	29 song	det
29	song	song	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 chant	obj
30	of	of	ADP	_	32 cock	case
31	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	32 cock	det
32	cock	cock	NOUN	Number=Sing	29 song	nmod
33	,	,	PUNCT	_	45 acquaintance	punct
34	so	so	SCONJ	ExtPos=SCONJ	45 acquaintance	mark
35	that	that	SCONJ	_	34 so	fixed
36	this	this	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	37 story	det
37	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	45 acquaintance	nsubj
38	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	45 acquaintance	aux
39	even	even	ADV	_	45 acquaintance	advmod
40	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	45 acquaintance	cop
41	like	like	ADP	_	45 acquaintance	case
42	“	"	PUNCT	_	45 acquaintance	punct
43	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	45 acquaintance	det
44	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	45 acquaintance	amod
45	acquaintance	acquaintance	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 chant	obl
46	with	with	ADP	_	49 face	case
47	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	49 face	det
48	cheerful	cheerful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	49 face	amod
49	face	face	NOUN	Number=Sing	45 acquaintance	nmod
50	”	"	PUNCT	_	49 face	punct
51	to	to	ADP	_	52 many	case
52	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	27 chant	obl
53	of	of	ADP	_	56 race	case
54	our	our	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	56 race	nmod:poss
55	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	56 race	amod
56	race	race	NOUN	Number=Sing	52 many	nmod
57	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	59 grown	nsubj
58	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	59 grown	aux
59	grown	grow	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	56 race	acl:relcl
60	up	up	ADP	_	59 grown	compound:prt
61	on	on	ADP	_	63 frontier	case
62	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	63 frontier	det
63	frontier	frontier	NOUN	Number=Sing	59 grown	obl
64	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 happens	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	other	roles by
1	happen	present	it				sometimes property	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	employ	present · passive	Europeans	native girls			as nurses	vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent subject=Theme as nurse=Attribute
3	child		that					tree rules
4	teach speech: other	present · passive	girls = girl	little children				vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent subject=Recipient clause=Topic
5	sing speech: express	to-infinitive	little children not said here					vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
6	chant	infinitive	girls = girl not said here	the song of the cock	many of our own race			vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent song=Topic to many=Recipient
7	is in a quote	may	this story				like a old acquaintance; with a cheerful face	tree rules
8	grow up	present · perfect	our own race			the frontier		vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on frontier=Location
9	sing		the cock					nom song «communication intransitive»: of=agent
10	race		our					nom race «event 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/pg71335/29/2/

🌲 Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Tangalimlibo., sentence 2

The tree

Pragmatics

Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Tangalimlibo., sentence 2