Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Simbukumbukwana., sentence 4
A case recently came before me for investigation, in which a Kaffir woman was suspected of having administered poison to another person.
Who acts: case · What happens: come, suspect, have, administer · To what, where: Kaffir woman, investigation, administered poison
This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Simbukumbukwana.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (case), 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 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 case | det |
| 2 | case | case | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 came | nsubj |
| 3 | recently | recently | ADV | _ | 4 came | advmod |
| 4 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | before | before | ADP | _ | 6 me | case |
| 6 | me | I | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 4 came | obl |
| 7 | for | for | ADP | _ | 8 investigation | case |
| 8 | investigation | investigation | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 came | obl |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 suspected | punct |
| 10 | in | in | ADP | _ | 11 which | case |
| 11 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 16 suspected | obl |
| 12 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 14 woman | det |
| 13 | Kaffir | Kaffir | PROPN | Number=Sing | 14 woman | compound |
| 14 | woman | woman | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 suspected | nsubj:pass |
| 15 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 16 suspected | aux:pass |
| 16 | suspected | suspect | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 8 investigation | acl:relcl |
| 17 | of | of | SCONJ | _ | 18 having | mark |
| 18 | having | have | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 16 suspected | advcl |
| 19 | administered | administer | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 20 poison | amod |
| 20 | poison | poison | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 having | obj |
| 21 | to | to | ADP | _ | 23 person | case |
| 22 | another | another | DET | PronType=Ind | 23 person | det |
| 23 | person | person | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 having | obl |
| 24 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 came | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | come | past | a case | before me | for investigation; recently property | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme before i=Location | |||
| 2 | suspect | past · passive | a Kaffir woman | investigation | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Attribute | ||||
| 3 | have | gerund | administered poison | to another person | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent poison=Patient | ||||
| 4 | administer | participle | vn contribute-13.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=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/pg71335/31/4/