Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of the Bird That Made Milk. II., sentence 85

Then the brave boy said to the girls: “While I am singing you must continue saying, ‘Tree be strong, Tree be strong!’”

Who acts: brave boy, girls, Tree · What happens: say, sing, continue, be · To what, where: girls · 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 (brave boy, girls, Tree), 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	Then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	5 said	advmod
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 boy	det
3	brave	brave	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 boy	amod
4	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 said	nsubj
5	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	to	to	ADP	_	8 girls	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 girls	det
8	girls	girl	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 said	obl
9	:	:	PUNCT	_	14 singing	punct
10	“	"	PUNCT	_	14 singing	punct
11	While	while	SCONJ	_	14 singing	mark
12	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	14 singing	nsubj
13	am	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	14 singing	aux
14	singing	sing	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 said	advcl
15	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	17 continue	nsubj
16	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	17 continue	aux
17	continue	continue	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	14 singing	ccomp
18	saying	say	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	17 continue	xcomp
19	,	,	PUNCT	_	23 strong	punct
20	‘	'	PUNCT	_	23 strong	punct
21	Tree	Tree	PROPN	Number=Sing	23 strong	nsubj
22	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	23 strong	cop
23	strong	strong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 singing	conj
24	,	,	PUNCT	_	27 strong	punct
25	Tree	Tree	PROPN	Number=Sing	27 strong	nsubj
26	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	27 strong	cop
27	strong	strong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	23 strong	parataxis
28	!	!	PUNCT	_	27 strong	punct
29	’	'	PUNCT	_	27 strong	punct
30	”	"	PUNCT	_	14 singing	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	to whom	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: express	past	the brave boy	the girls	then		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to girl=Recipient
2	sing speech: express in a quote	present · progressive	the brave boy = boy				vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	continue in a quote	must	the girls = girl				vn continue-55.3 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
4	say speech: assert in a quote	gerund	the girls = girl not said here				vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
5	is in a quote	infinitive	Tree			strong property	tree rules
6	is in a quote	infinitive	Tree			strong 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/pg71335/4/85/

🌲 Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of the Bird That Made Milk. II., sentence 85

The tree

Pragmatics

Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of the Bird That Made Milk. II., sentence 85