Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of the Bird That Made Milk. II., sentence 76
While they were roasting the roots and were merry, there came a big cannibal, and they heard his voice saying: “Mosemanyanamatong, give me some of the wild roots you have.”
Who acts: children, voice, Mosemanyanamatong, you · What happens: roast, be, come, hear, say, give · To what, where: roots, big cannibal, voice, some, storm, wild roots · 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 (children, voice, Mosemanyanamatong, you), 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 | While | while | SCONJ | _ | 4 roasting | mark |
| 2 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 roasting | nsubj |
| 3 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 roasting | aux |
| 4 | roasting | roast | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 12 came | advcl |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 roots | det |
| 6 | roots | root | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 roasting | obj |
| 7 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 9 merry | cc |
| 8 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 merry | cop |
| 9 | merry | merry | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 roasting | conj |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 roasting | punct |
| 11 | there | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 12 came | expl |
| 12 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 13 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 15 cannibal | det |
| 14 | big | big | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 15 cannibal | amod |
| 15 | cannibal | cannibal | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 came | obj |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 heard | punct |
| 17 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 19 heard | cc |
| 18 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 heard | nsubj |
| 19 | heard | hear | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 came | conj |
| 20 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 21 voice | nmod:poss |
| 21 | voice | voice | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 heard | obj |
| 22 | saying | say | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 19 heard | xcomp |
| 23 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 27 give | punct |
| 24 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 27 give | punct |
| 25 | Mosemanyanamatong | Mosemanyanamatong | PROPN | Number=Sing | 27 give | nsubj |
| 26 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 25 Mosemanyanamatong | punct |
| 27 | give | give | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 19 heard | ccomp |
| 28 | me | I | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 27 give | iobj |
| 29 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 27 give | obj |
| 30 | of | of | ADP | _ | 33 roots | case |
| 31 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 33 roots | det |
| 32 | wild | wild | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 roots | compound |
| 33 | roots | root | NOUN | Number=Plur | 29 some | nmod |
| 34 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 35 have | nsubj |
| 35 | have | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 33 roots | acl:relcl |
| 36 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 27 give | punct |
| 37 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 27 give | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | roast | past · progressive | children = child | the roots | vn cooking-45.3 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent root=Patient | ||||
| 2 | is | past | children = child not said here | merry property | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | come | past | a big cannibal | there | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location cannibal=Theme | ||||
| 4 | hear | past | children = child | storm's voice | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | say speech: assert | gerund | storm's voice not said here | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 6 | give in a quote | infinitive | Mosemanyanamatong | some of the wild roots | storm | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient some=Theme | |||
| 7 | have in a quote | present | you | the wild roots not said here | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent root=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.
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