Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of the Bird That Made Milk. II., sentence 67

When the digging companies returned from digging, the people of that town cried for their children, for they did not know what had become of them.

Who acts: digging companies, people, children · What happens: return, dig, cry, not know, become · 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 (digging companies, people, children), 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	When	when	ADV	PronType=Int	5 returned	advmod
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 companies	det
3	digging	digging	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 companies	compound
4	companies	company	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 returned	nsubj
5	returned	return	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 cried	advcl
6	from	from	SCONJ	_	7 digging	mark
7	digging	dig	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 returned	advcl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 returned	punct
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 people	det
10	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 cried	nsubj
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 town	case
12	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	13 town	det
13	town	town	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 people	nmod
14	cried	cry	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
15	for	for	ADP	_	17 children	case
16	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	17 children	nmod:poss
17	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 cried	obl
18	,	,	PUNCT	_	23 know	punct
19	for	for	SCONJ	_	23 know	mark
20	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	23 know	nsubj
21	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	23 know	aux
22	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	23 know	advmod
23	know	know	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	14 cried	conj
24	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	26 become	nsubj
25	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	26 become	aux
26	become	become	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	23 know	ccomp
27	of	of	ADP	_	28 them	case
28	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	26 become	obl
29	.	.	PUNCT	_	14 cried	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	return	past	the digging companies		vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	dig	gerund	the digging companies not said here		vn create-26.4-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	cry speech: express	past	the people of that town	for people's children	vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient S_INF»: agent=Agent for child=Recipient
4	not know	past · do-support	children = child		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
5	become	past · perfect		of children = child; what nsubj	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=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/pg71335/4/67/

🌲 Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of the Bird That Made Milk. II., sentence 67

The tree

Pragmatics

Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of the Bird That Made Milk. II., sentence 67