Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Girl Who Disregarded the Custom of Ntonjane., sentence 33
The girls of the jaka are allowed by immemorial custom to select sweethearts, and this liberty often leads to depravity.
Who acts: immemorial custom, girls, liberty · What happens: allow, select, lead · To what, where: girls, sweethearts
This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of the Girl Who Disregarded the Custom of Ntonjane.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (immemorial custom, girls, liberty), 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 girls | det |
| 2 | girls | girl | NOUN | Number=Plur | 7 allowed | nsubj:pass |
| 3 | of | of | ADP | _ | 5 jaka | case |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 jaka | det |
| 5 | jaka | jaka | X | Foreign=Yes | 2 girls | nmod |
| 6 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 7 allowed | aux:pass |
| 7 | allowed | allow | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 8 | by | by | ADP | _ | 10 custom | case |
| 9 | immemorial | immemorial | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 10 custom | amod |
| 10 | custom | custom | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 allowed | obl |
| 11 | to | to | PART | _ | 12 select | mark |
| 12 | select | select | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 7 allowed | xcomp |
| 13 | sweethearts | sweetheart | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 select | obj |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 leads | punct |
| 15 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 19 leads | cc |
| 16 | this | this | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 17 liberty | det |
| 17 | liberty | liberty | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 leads | nsubj |
| 18 | often | often | ADV | _ | 19 leads | advmod |
| 19 | leads | lead | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 7 allowed | conj |
| 20 | to | to | ADP | _ | 21 depravity | case |
| 21 | depravity | depravity | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 leads | obl |
| 22 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 7 allowed | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | allow | present · passive | immemorial custom | the girls of the jaka | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: agent=Causer subject=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality | ||||
| 2 | select not said to happen | to-infinitive | the girls of the jaka not said here | sweethearts | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sweetheart=Theme | ||||
| 3 | lead | present | this liberty | to depravity; often property | vn result-27.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Precondition to depravity=Patient |
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/pg71335/30/33/