Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Sikulume., sentence 28
If they chance to be disinclined for active exercise, they amuse themselves by moulding clay into little images of cattle, or by making puzzles with strings.
Who acts: boys · What happens: chance, disincline, amuse, mould, make, image · To what, where: boys, clay, little images, puzzles, cattle
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 | If | if | SCONJ | _ | 3 chance | mark |
| 2 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 chance | nsubj |
| 3 | chance | chance | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 amuse | advcl |
| 4 | to | to | PART | _ | 6 disinclined | mark |
| 5 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 6 disinclined | aux:pass |
| 6 | disinclined | disincline | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 3 chance | acl |
| 7 | for | for | ADP | _ | 9 exercise | case |
| 8 | active | active | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 9 exercise | amod |
| 9 | exercise | exercise | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 disinclined | obl |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 chance | punct |
| 11 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 12 amuse | nsubj |
| 12 | amuse | amuse | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 13 | themselves | themselves | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes | 12 amuse | obj |
| 14 | by | by | SCONJ | _ | 15 moulding | mark |
| 15 | moulding | mould | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 12 amuse | advcl |
| 16 | clay | clay | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 moulding | obj |
| 17 | into | into | ADP | _ | 19 images | case |
| 18 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 19 images | amod |
| 19 | images | image | NOUN | Number=Plur | 15 moulding | obl |
| 20 | of | of | ADP | _ | 21 cattle | case |
| 21 | cattle | cattle | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 images | nmod |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 25 making | punct |
| 23 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 25 making | cc |
| 24 | by | by | SCONJ | _ | 25 making | mark |
| 25 | making | make | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 15 moulding | conj |
| 26 | puzzles | puzzle | NOUN | Number=Plur | 25 making | obj |
| 27 | with | with | ADP | _ | 28 strings | case |
| 28 | strings | string | NOUN | Number=Plur | 25 making | obl |
| 29 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 12 amuse | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | chance a condition, not said to happen | boys = boy | tree rules | ||||||
| 2 | disincline | to-infinitive · passive | boys = boy not said here | for active exercise | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | amuse | present | boys = boy | boys = boy | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus themselves=Experiencer | ||||
| 4 | mould | gerund | boys = boy not said here | clay | little images of cattle | tree rules | |||
| 5 | make | gerund | boys = boy not said here | puzzles | with strings | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset puzzle=Product | |||
| 6 | image | cattle | nom image «cognition transitive»: of=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/pg71335/32/28/