Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Sikulume., sentence 65

Besides the use which it is put to by the lads, when a little child is crying inside a hut its mother or nurse will sometimes get a boy to make a noise with a nodiwu outside, and then induce the child to be still by pretending that a monster is coming to devour it.

Who acts: lads, little child, mother, boy, you, monster · What happens: put, cry, get, make, induce, pretend · To what, where: use, hut, boy, noise, child, nodiwu

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 (lads, little child, mother, boy), 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	Besides	besides	ADP	_	3 use	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 use	det
3	use	use	NOUN	Number=Sing	42 induce	obl
4	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 put	nsubj:pass
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 put	nsubj:pass
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 put	aux:pass
7	put	put	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 use	acl:relcl
8	to	to	ADP	_	7 put	obl
9	by	by	ADP	_	11 lads	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 lads	det
11	lads	lad	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 put	obl
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 crying	punct
13	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	18 crying	advmod
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 child	det
15	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 child	amod
16	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 crying	nsubj
17	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	18 crying	aux
18	crying	cry	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	11 lads	acl
19	inside	inside	ADP	_	21 hut	case
20	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	21 hut	det
21	hut	hut	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 crying	obl
22	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	23 mother	nmod:poss
23	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	28 get	nsubj
24	or	or	CCONJ	_	25 nurse	cc
25	nurse	nurse	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 mother	conj
26	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	28 get	aux
27	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	PronType=Ind	28 get	advmod
28	get	get	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	21 hut	acl:relcl
29	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	30 boy	det
30	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	28 get	obj
31	to	to	PART	_	32 make	mark
32	make	make	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	28 get	xcomp
33	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	34 noise	det
34	noise	noise	NOUN	Number=Sing	32 make	obj
35	with	with	ADP	_	37 nodiwu	case
36	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	37 nodiwu	det
37	nodiwu	nodiwu	NOUN	Number=Sing	32 make	obl
38	outside	outside	ADV	_	32 make	advmod
39	,	,	PUNCT	_	42 induce	punct
40	and	and	CCONJ	_	42 induce	cc
41	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	42 induce	advmod
42	induce	induce	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
43	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	44 child	det
44	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	42 induce	obj
45	to	to	PART	_	49 pretending	mark
46	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	49 pretending	aux
47	still	still	ADV	_	49 pretending	advmod
48	by	by	SCONJ	_	49 pretending	mark
49	pretending	pretend	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	42 induce	advcl
50	that	that	SCONJ	_	54 coming	mark
51	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	52 monster	det
52	monster	monster	NOUN	Number=Sing	54 coming	nsubj
53	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	54 coming	aux
54	coming	come	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	49 pretending	advcl
55	to	to	PART	_	56 devour	mark
56	devour	devour	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	54 coming	xcomp
57	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	56 devour	obj
58	.	.	PUNCT	_	42 induce	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	put	present · passive	the lads	the use			nodiwu nsubj:pass	vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent subject=Goal
2	cry speech: express	present · progressive	a little child		a hut			vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme inside hut=Location
3	get	future	nodiwu's mother or nurse	a boy			sometimes property	tree rules
4	make	to-infinitive	a boy not said here	a noise			with a nodiwu; outside property	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset noise=Product
5	induce	imperative	you not said here	the child		then	besides the use	vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Patient
6	pretend	to-infinitive · progressive	you not said here			still		tree rules
7	come	present · progressive	a monster					tree rules
8	devour	to-infinitive	a monster not said here	nodiwu				vn devour-39.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=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/pg71335/32/65/

🌲 Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Sikulume., sentence 65

The tree

Pragmatics

Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Sikulume., sentence 65