Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Sikulume., sentence 4
At a very early age they commence trials of skill against each other in throwing knobbed sticks and imitation assagais.
Who acts: stations · What happens: commence, throw, try · To what, where: trials, early age, knobbed sticks, skill
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 (stations), 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 | At | at | ADP | _ | 5 age | case |
| 2 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 5 age | det |
| 3 | very | very | ADV | _ | 4 early | advmod |
| 4 | early | early | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 age | amod |
| 5 | age | age | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 commence | obl |
| 6 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 7 commence | nsubj |
| 7 | commence | commence | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 8 | trials | trial | NOUN | Number=Plur | 7 commence | obj |
| 9 | of | of | ADP | _ | 10 skill | case |
| 10 | skill | skill | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 trials | nmod |
| 11 | against | against | ADP | _ | 12 each | case |
| 12 | each | each | DET | ExtPos=PRON PronType=Rcp | 7 commence | obl |
| 13 | other | other | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 12 each | fixed |
| 14 | in | in | SCONJ | _ | 15 throwing | mark |
| 15 | throwing | throw | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 7 commence | advcl |
| 16 | knobbed | knobbed | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 17 sticks | amod |
| 17 | sticks | stick | NOUN | Number=Plur | 15 throwing | obj |
| 18 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 20 assagais | cc |
| 19 | imitation | imitation | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 assagais | compound |
| 20 | assagais | assagai | NOUN | Number=Plur | 17 sticks | conj |
| 21 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 7 commence | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | commence | present | stations = station | trials of skill | at a early age | against each | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent trial=Eventuality | ||
| 2 | throw | gerund | stations = station not said here | knobbed sticks and imitation assagais | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stick=Theme | ||||
| 3 | try | skill | nom trial «act 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.
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