Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Sikulume., sentence 59
Bows and arrows are sometimes seen, but generally boys prefer an imitation assagai.
Who acts: boys · What happens: see, prefer · To what, where: Bows, imitation assagai
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 | Bows | bow | NOUN | Number=Plur | 6 seen | nsubj:pass |
| 2 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 3 arrows | cc |
| 3 | arrows | arrow | NOUN | Number=Plur | 1 Bows | conj |
| 4 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 6 seen | aux:pass |
| 5 | sometimes | sometimes | ADV | PronType=Ind | 6 seen | advmod |
| 6 | seen | see | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 11 prefer | punct |
| 8 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 11 prefer | cc |
| 9 | generally | generally | ADV | _ | 11 prefer | advmod |
| 10 | boys | boy | NOUN | Number=Plur | 11 prefer | nsubj |
| 11 | prefer | prefer | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 6 seen | conj |
| 12 | an | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 14 assagai | det |
| 13 | imitation | imitation | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 assagai | compound |
| 14 | assagai | assagai | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 prefer | obj |
| 15 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 6 seen | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | see | present · passive | Bows and arrows | sometimes property | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Stimulus | ||||
| 2 | prefer | present | boys | a imitation assagai | generally property | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer assagai=Stimulus |
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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