Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Bird That Made Milk. I., sentence 144
The bird said: “Your sister has performed the custom, and as for you, you should enter manhood.”
Who acts: bird, sister, you · What happens: say, perform, enter · To what, where: custom, manhood · 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 (bird, sister, you), 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 bird | det |
| 2 | bird | bird | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 said | nsubj |
| 3 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 9 performed | punct |
| 5 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 9 performed | punct |
| 6 | Your | your | PRON | Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 7 sister | nmod:poss |
| 7 | sister | sister | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 performed | nsubj |
| 8 | has | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 9 performed | aux |
| 9 | performed | perform | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 3 said | ccomp |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 custom | det |
| 11 | custom | custom | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 performed | obj |
| 12 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 enter | punct |
| 13 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 20 enter | cc |
| 14 | as | as | ADP | ExtPos=ADP | 16 you | case |
| 15 | for | for | ADP | _ | 14 as | fixed |
| 16 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 20 enter | nsubj |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 you | punct |
| 18 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 20 enter | nsubj |
| 19 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 20 enter | aux |
| 20 | enter | enter | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 said | ccomp |
| 21 | manhood | manhood | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 enter | obj |
| 22 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 20 enter | punct |
| 23 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 20 enter | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | past | the bird | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | perform in a quote | present · perfect | Your sister | the custom | vn performance-26.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent custom=Theme | ||||
| 3 | enter in a quote | should | you | manhood | vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme manhood=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/pg71335/3/144/