Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of the Bird That Made Milk. II., sentence 63
The bird began to dance in the house, but one said: “This place is too confined,” so they took it outside of the house.
Who acts: bird, one, others · What happens: begin, dance, say, confine, take · To what, where: house, place · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of the Bird That Made Milk. II.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bird, one, others), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 bird | det |
| 2 | bird | bird | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 began | nsubj |
| 3 | began | begin | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | to | to | PART | _ | 5 dance | mark |
| 5 | dance | dance | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 began | xcomp |
| 6 | in | in | ADP | _ | 8 house | case |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 house | det |
| 8 | house | house | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 dance | obl |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 said | punct |
| 10 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 12 said | cc |
| 11 | one | one | PRON | Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 12 said | nsubj |
| 12 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 began | parataxis |
| 13 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 19 confined | punct |
| 14 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 19 confined | punct |
| 15 | This | this | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 16 place | det |
| 16 | place | place | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 confined | nsubj:pass |
| 17 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 19 confined | aux:pass |
| 18 | too | too | ADV | _ | 19 confined | advmod |
| 19 | confined | confine | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 12 said | ccomp |
| 20 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 confined | punct |
| 21 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 19 confined | punct |
| 22 | so | so | ADV | _ | 24 took | advmod |
| 23 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 24 took | nsubj |
| 24 | took | take | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 19 confined | advcl |
| 25 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 24 took | obj |
| 26 | outside | outside | ADV | _ | 24 took | advmod |
| 27 | of | of | ADP | _ | 29 house | case |
| 28 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 29 house | det |
| 29 | house | house | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 outside | obl |
| 30 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 began | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | begin | past | the bird | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 2 | dance | to-infinitive | the bird not said here | the house | vn modes_of_being_with_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in house=Location | ||||
| 3 | say speech: assert | past | one | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 4 | confine in a quote | present · passive | this place | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme | |||||
| 5 | take | past | others = other | place | outside property | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
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/pg71335/4/63/