Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Sikulume., sentence 23
The boys mount them when they are eighteen months or two years old, and race about upon their backs.
Who acts: boys · What happens: mount, be, race · To what, where: signals, eighteen months, backs
This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Sikulume.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boys), 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 boys | det |
| 2 | boys | boy | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 mount | nsubj |
| 3 | mount | mount | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 mount | obj |
| 5 | when | when | SCONJ | _ | 13 old | mark |
| 6 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 9 months | nsubj |
| 7 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 9 months | cop |
| 8 | eighteen | eighteen | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 9 months | nummod |
| 9 | months | month | NOUN | Number=Plur | 13 old | obl:unmarked |
| 10 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 12 years | cc |
| 11 | two | two | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 12 years | nummod |
| 12 | years | year | NOUN | Number=Plur | 9 months | conj |
| 13 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 mount | advcl |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 race | punct |
| 15 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 16 race | cc |
| 16 | race | race | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 mount | conj |
| 17 | about | about | ADV | _ | 16 race | advmod |
| 18 | upon | upon | ADP | _ | 20 backs | case |
| 19 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 20 backs | nmod:poss |
| 20 | backs | back | NOUN | Number=Plur | 16 race | obl |
| 21 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 mount | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | mount | present | the boys | signals = signal | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient | ||||
| 2 | is a | present | boys = boy | eighteen months or two years | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | race | present | the boys not said here | boys's backs | about property | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon back=Trajectory |
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/pg71335/32/23/