Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Sikulume., sentence 51

One of the players takes a grain of maize, or any other small substance, in his hands, and pretends to place it in the hands of the others, who are seated in a circle around him.

Who acts: One · What happens: take, pretend, seat · To what, where: grain, place, hands, others, circle

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 (One), 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	One	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	5 takes	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	4 players	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 players	det
4	players	player	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 One	nmod
5	takes	take	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 grain	det
7	grain	grain	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 takes	obj
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 maize	case
9	maize	maize	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 grain	nmod
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 substance	punct
11	or	or	CCONJ	_	15 substance	cc
12	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	15 substance	det
13	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 substance	amod
14	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 substance	amod
15	substance	substance	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 takes	obl
16	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 hands	punct
17	in	in	ADP	_	19 hands	case
18	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	19 hands	nmod:poss
19	hands	hand	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 substance	conj
20	,	,	PUNCT	_	22 pretends	punct
21	and	and	CCONJ	_	22 pretends	cc
22	pretends	pretend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 takes	conj
23	to	to	PART	_	24 place	mark
24	place	place	NOUN	Number=Sing	22 pretends	xcomp
25	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	22 pretends	obj
26	in	in	ADP	_	28 hands	case
27	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	28 hands	det
28	hands	hand	NOUN	Number=Plur	22 pretends	obl
29	of	of	ADP	_	31 others	case
30	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	31 others	det
31	others	other	NOUN	Number=Plur	28 hands	nmod
32	,	,	PUNCT	_	35 seated	punct
33	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	35 seated	nsubj
34	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	35 seated	aux:pass
35	seated	seat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	31 others	acl:relcl
36	in	in	ADP	_	38 circle	case
37	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	38 circle	det
38	circle	circle	NOUN	Number=Sing	35 seated	obl
39	around	around	ADP	_	40 him	case
40	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	38 circle	nmod
41	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 takes	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	take	present	One of the players	a grain of maize		any other small substance and Iceya's hands obl	vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent grain=Theme
2	pretend	present	One of the players not said here	place	the hands of the others		tree rules
3	seat	present · passive		the others	a circle around Iceya		vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: subject=Value in circle=Location

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/pg71335/32/51/

🌲 Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Sikulume., sentence 51

The tree

Pragmatics

Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Sikulume., sentence 51