Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Sikulume., sentence 26
The biggest boy holds the blades between the fingers and thumb of his closed hand, and whoever draws the blade with the knot has to act as herdsman.
Who acts: biggest boy, whoever, knot · What happens: hold, close, draw, have, act · To what, where: blades, fingers, blade
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 (biggest boy, whoever, knot), 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 | 3 boy | det |
| 2 | biggest | big | ADJ | Degree=Sup | 3 boy | amod |
| 3 | boy | boy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 holds | nsubj |
| 4 | holds | hold | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 blades | det |
| 6 | blades | blade | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 holds | obj |
| 7 | between | between | ADP | _ | 9 fingers | case |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 9 fingers | det |
| 9 | fingers | finger | NOUN | Number=Plur | 6 blades | nmod |
| 10 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 11 thumb | cc |
| 11 | thumb | thumb | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 fingers | conj |
| 12 | of | of | ADP | _ | 15 hand | case |
| 13 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 15 hand | nmod:poss |
| 14 | closed | close | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 15 hand | amod |
| 15 | hand | hand | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 thumb | nmod |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 draws | punct |
| 17 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 19 draws | cc |
| 18 | whoever | whoever | PRON | PronType=Rel | 19 draws | nsubj |
| 19 | draws | draw | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 holds | conj |
| 20 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 21 blade | det |
| 21 | blade | blade | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 draws | obj |
| 22 | with | with | SCONJ | _ | 25 has | mark |
| 23 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 24 knot | det |
| 24 | knot | knot | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 has | nsubj |
| 25 | has | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 19 draws | advcl |
| 26 | to | to | PART | _ | 27 act | mark |
| 27 | act | act | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 25 has | xcomp |
| 28 | as | as | ADP | _ | 29 herdsman | case |
| 29 | herdsman | herdsman | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 act | obl |
| 30 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 holds | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | hold | present | the biggest boy | the blades | the fingers and thumb of knot's closed hand | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent blade=Theme between finger=Location | |||
| 2 | close | participle | vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient | ||||||
| 3 | draw | present | whoever | the blade | vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent blade=Theme | ||||
| 4 | have | present | the knot | tree rules | |||||
| 5 | act | to-infinitive | the knot not said here | as herdsman | vn masquerade-29.6-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Agent as herdsman=Attribute |
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/pg71335/32/26/