Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Sikulume., sentence 6

Commencing with an ant-heap at a distance of ten or fifteen yards, for a target, they gradually become so perfect that they can hit an object a foot square at double and even treble that distance.

Who acts: stations · What happens: commence, become, hit, treble · To what, where: object, double, distance

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	Commencing	commence	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	22 become	advcl
2	with	with	ADP	_	6 heap	case
3	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 heap	det
4	ant	ant	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 heap	compound
5	-	-	PUNCT	_	4 ant	punct
6	heap	heap	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Commencing	obl
7	at	at	ADP	_	9 distance	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 distance	det
9	distance	distance	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Commencing	obl
10	of	of	ADP	_	14 yards	case
11	ten	ten	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	14 yards	nummod
12	or	or	CCONJ	_	13 fifteen	cc
13	fifteen	fifteen	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	11 ten	conj
14	yards	yard	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 distance	nmod
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 target	punct
16	for	for	ADP	_	18 target	case
17	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 target	det
18	target	target	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Commencing	obl
19	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Commencing	punct
20	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	22 become	nsubj
21	gradually	gradually	ADV	_	22 become	advmod
22	become	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
23	so	so	ADV	_	24 perfect	advmod
24	perfect	perfect	ADJ	Degree=Pos	22 become	xcomp
25	that	that	SCONJ	_	28 hit	mark
26	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	28 hit	nsubj
27	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	28 hit	aux
28	hit	hit	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	24 perfect	advcl
29	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	30 object	det
30	object	object	NOUN	Number=Sing	28 hit	obj
31	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	33 square	det
32	foot	foot	NOUN	Number=Sing	33 square	compound
33	square	square	NOUN	Number=Sing	28 hit	obj
34	at	at	ADP	_	35 double	case
35	double	double	ADJ	Degree=Pos	28 hit	obl
36	and	and	CCONJ	_	38 treble	cc
37	even	even	ADV	_	38 treble	advmod
38	treble	treble	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	22 become	conj
39	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	40 distance	det
40	distance	distance	NOUN	Number=Sing	38 treble	obj
41	.	.	PUNCT	_	22 become	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	commence	gerund	stations = station not said here			with a ant heap; at a distance of ten yards; for a target	vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V PP.subeventuality»: agent=Eventuality with heap=Subeventuality
2	become	present	stations = station			gradually, perfect property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient
3	hit	can	stations = station	a object	double	a foot square obj	vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP ADJP»: agent=Agent object=Patient square=Result
4	treble	infinitive	stations = station not said here	that distance			vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent distance=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/pg71335/32/6/

🌲 Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Sikulume., sentence 6

The tree

Pragmatics

Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Sikulume., sentence 6