Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Bird That Made Milk. I., sentence 135

The boy was just going to kill it, but it said: “I am a crocodile; I am not to be killed; I am your friend.”

Who acts: boy, crocodile · What happens: go, kill, say, be, not kill · To what, where: crocodile, friend · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of the Bird That Made Milk. I.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy, crocodile), 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 boy	det
2	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 going	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 going	aux
4	just	just	ADV	_	5 going	advmod
5	going	go	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	7 kill	mark
7	kill	kill	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 going	xcomp
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 kill	obj
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 said	punct
10	but	but	CCONJ	_	12 said	cc
11	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 said	nsubj
12	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 going	conj
13	:	:	PUNCT	_	18 crocodile	punct
14	“	"	PUNCT	_	18 crocodile	punct
15	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	18 crocodile	nsubj
16	am	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	18 crocodile	cop
17	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 crocodile	det
18	crocodile	crocodile	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 said	ccomp
19	;	;	PUNCT	_	25 killed	punct
20	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	25 killed	nsubj
21	am	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	25 killed	aux:pass
22	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	25 killed	advmod
23	to	to	PART	_	25 killed	mark
24	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	25 killed	aux:pass
25	killed	kill	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	18 crocodile	conj
26	;	;	PUNCT	_	30 friend	punct
27	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	30 friend	nsubj
28	am	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	30 friend	cop
29	your	your	PRON	Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	30 friend	nmod:poss
30	friend	friend	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 going	xcomp
31	.	.	PUNCT	_	30 friend	punct
32	”	"	PUNCT	_	30 friend	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	go	past · progressive	the boy			vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	kill	to-infinitive	the boy not said here	crocodile		vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme
3	say speech: assert	past	crocodile			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
4	is a in a quote	present	crocodile	a crocodile		tree rules
5	not kill in a quote	present · passive		crocodile		vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
6	is a in a quote	present	crocodile	your friend	your nmod:poss	tree rules

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/pg71335/3/135/

🌲 Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Bird That Made Milk. I., sentence 135

The tree

Pragmatics

Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Bird That Made Milk. I., sentence 135