Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Long Snake., sentence 4

Kaffir women grind, or rather bruise, millet by putting it on a flat stone, before which the worker kneels, and crushing it with a small round stone held in the hands.

Who acts: Kaffir women, bruise, worker · What happens: grind, put, kneel, crush, hold · To what, where: bruise, millet, flat stone, worker, small round stone, hands

This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Long Snake.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Kaffir women, bruise, worker), 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	Kaffir	kaffir	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 women	compound
2	women	woman	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 grind	nsubj
3	grind	grind	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 bruise	punct
5	or	or	CCONJ	_	7 bruise	cc
6	rather	rather	ADV	_	7 bruise	advmod
7	bruise	bruise	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 grind	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 millet	punct
9	millet	millet	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 bruise	conj
10	by	by	SCONJ	_	11 putting	mark
11	putting	put	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 bruise	acl
12	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 putting	obj
13	on	on	ADP	_	16 stone	case
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 stone	det
15	flat	flat	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 stone	amod
16	stone	stone	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 putting	obl
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	22 kneels	punct
18	before	before	ADP	_	19 which	case
19	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	22 kneels	obl
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 worker	det
21	worker	worker	NOUN	Number=Sing	22 kneels	nsubj
22	kneels	kneel	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 grind	parataxis
23	,	,	PUNCT	_	25 crushing	punct
24	and	and	CCONJ	_	25 crushing	cc
25	crushing	crush	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	22 kneels	advcl
26	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	25 crushing	obj
27	with	with	ADP	_	31 stone	case
28	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	31 stone	det
29	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	31 stone	amod
30	round	round	ADJ	Degree=Pos	31 stone	amod
31	stone	stone	NOUN	Number=Sing	25 crushing	obl
32	held	hold	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	31 stone	acl
33	in	in	ADP	_	35 hands	case
34	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	35 hands	det
35	hands	hand	NOUN	Number=Plur	32 held	obl
36	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 grind	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	grind	present	Kaffir women	bruise and millet			vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	put	gerund	bruise and millet not said here	millet	a flat stone		vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme on stone=Destination
3	kneel	present	the worker			which obl	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent before which=Location
4	crush	gerund	the worker not said here	worker		with a small round stone	vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent it=Patient with stone=Instrument
5	hold	participle		a small round stone not said here	the hands		vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in hand=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/pg71335/37/4/

🌲 Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Long Snake., sentence 4

The tree

Pragmatics

Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Long Snake., sentence 4