Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of the Bird That Made Milk. II., sentence 68
But when Masilo went into the house and could not find his bird, he knew where the children were, but he did not tell any of their parents.
Who acts: Masilo, children · What happens: go, not find, know, not be · To what, where: house, bird · 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 (Masilo, 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 | But | but | CCONJ | _ | 16 knew | cc |
| 2 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 4 went | advmod |
| 3 | Masilo | Masilo | PROPN | Number=Sing | 4 went | nsubj |
| 4 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 16 knew | advcl |
| 5 | into | into | ADP | _ | 7 house | case |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 house | det |
| 7 | house | house | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 went | obl |
| 8 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 11 find | cc |
| 9 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 11 find | aux |
| 10 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 11 find | advmod |
| 11 | find | find | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 went | conj |
| 12 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 13 bird | nmod:poss |
| 13 | bird | bird | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 find | obj |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 went | punct |
| 15 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 knew | nsubj |
| 16 | knew | know | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 17 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 26 tell | advmod |
| 18 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 19 children | det |
| 19 | children | child | NOUN | Number=Plur | 26 tell | nsubj |
| 20 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 26 tell | cop |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 tell | punct |
| 22 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 26 tell | cc |
| 23 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 26 tell | nsubj |
| 24 | did | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 26 tell | aux |
| 25 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 26 tell | advmod |
| 26 | tell | tell | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 16 knew | ccomp |
| 27 | any | any | DET | PronType=Ind | 26 tell | obj |
| 28 | of | of | ADP | _ | 30 parents | case |
| 29 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 30 parents | nmod:poss |
| 30 | parents | parent | NOUN | Number=Plur | 27 any | nmod |
| 31 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 16 knew | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | go | past | Masilo | the house | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme into house=Initial_Location | ||||
| 2 | not find | could | Masilo not said here | Masilo's bird | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bird=Topic | ||||
| 3 | know | past | Masilo | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | |||||
| 4 | not is | past · do-support | the children | Masilo nsubj; tell property | tree rules |
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/pg71335/4/68/