Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Bird That Made Milk. I., sentence 98
The children called it, and said: “Return, bird of our father,” but it did not come back.
Who acts: children, milk, father · What happens: call, say, not come back, return · To what, where: milk, Return · 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 (children, milk, father), 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 children | det |
| 2 | children | child | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 called | nsubj |
| 3 | called | call | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 called | obj |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 said | punct |
| 6 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 7 said | cc |
| 7 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 called | conj |
| 8 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 10 Return | punct |
| 9 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 10 Return | punct |
| 10 | Return | return | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 said | obj |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 bird | punct |
| 12 | bird | bird | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 Return | conj |
| 13 | of | of | ADP | _ | 15 father | case |
| 14 | our | our | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 15 father | nmod:poss |
| 15 | father | father | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 Return | nmod |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 father | punct |
| 17 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 10 Return | punct |
| 18 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 22 come | cc |
| 19 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 22 come | nsubj |
| 20 | did | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 22 come | aux |
| 21 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 22 come | advmod |
| 22 | come | come | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 7 said | conj |
| 23 | back | back | ADV | _ | 22 come | advmod |
| 24 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 called | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | call | past | the children | milk | vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Recipient | ||||
| 2 | say speech: assert | past | the children not said here | Return of our father and bird | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent return=Topic | ||||
| 3 | not come back | past · do-support | milk | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 4 | return in a quote | our father | nom return «communication intransitive»: of=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.
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