Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of the Bird That Made Milk. II., sentence 66

So they followed it, and continued going after it the whole day long, for when they were at a distance it would sit still for a little while, and when they approached it would fly away.

Who acts: children, work · What happens: follow, continue, go, be, sit, approach · To what, where: work

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 (children, work), 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	So	so	ADV	_	3 followed	advmod
2	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 followed	nsubj
3	followed	follow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 followed	obj
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 continued	punct
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 continued	cc
7	continued	continue	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 followed	parataxis
8	going	go	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 continued	xcomp
9	after	after	ADP	_	10 it	case
10	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 going	obl
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 day	det
12	whole	whole	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 day	amod
13	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 going	obl:unmarked
14	long	long	ADV	Degree=Pos	8 going	advmod
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	25 sit	punct
16	for	for	SCONJ	_	22 distance	mark
17	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	22 distance	advmod
18	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	22 distance	nsubj
19	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	22 distance	cop
20	at	at	ADP	_	22 distance	case
21	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	22 distance	det
22	distance	distance	NOUN	Number=Sing	25 sit	advcl
23	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	25 sit	nsubj
24	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	25 sit	aux
25	sit	sit	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 continued	conj
26	still	still	ADV	_	25 sit	advmod
27	for	for	ADP	_	30 while	case
28	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	30 while	det
29	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	30 while	amod
30	while	while	NOUN	Number=Sing	25 sit	obl
31	,	,	PUNCT	_	35 approached	punct
32	and	and	CCONJ	_	35 approached	cc
33	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	35 approached	advmod
34	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	35 approached	nsubj
35	approached	approach	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	25 sit	conj
36	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	38 fly	nsubj
37	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	38 fly	aux
38	fly	fly	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	35 approached	ccomp
39	away	away	ADV	_	38 fly	advmod
40	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 followed	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	follow	past	children = child	work			vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme
2	continue	past					vn continue-55.3 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
3	go	gerund			after work; day	long property	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
4	is	past	children = child			at a distance	tree rules
5	sit	would	work		still; while		vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent
6	approach	past	children = child				tree rules
7	fly away	would	work			away property	vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=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/pg71335/4/66/

🌲 Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of the Bird That Made Milk. II., sentence 66

The tree

Pragmatics

Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of the Bird That Made Milk. II., sentence 66