Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of the Bird That Made Milk. II., sentence 90
While he was singing, there came a great bird and hovered over them, and said: “Hold fast to me.”
Who acts: Mosemanyanamatong, great bird · What happens: sing, come, hover, say, hold · To what, where: great 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 (Mosemanyanamatong, great bird), 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 singing | mark |
| 2 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 singing | nsubj |
| 3 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 singing | aux |
| 4 | singing | sing | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 7 came | advcl |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 singing | punct |
| 6 | there | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 7 came | expl |
| 7 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 8 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 10 bird | det |
| 9 | great | great | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 10 bird | amod |
| 10 | bird | bird | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 came | nsubj |
| 11 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 12 hovered | cc |
| 12 | hovered | hover | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 came | conj |
| 13 | over | over | ADP | _ | 14 them | case |
| 14 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 12 hovered | obl |
| 15 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 said | punct |
| 16 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 said | cc |
| 17 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 came | conj |
| 18 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 20 Hold | punct |
| 19 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 20 Hold | punct |
| 20 | Hold | hold | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 17 said | ccomp |
| 21 | fast | fast | ADV | Degree=Pos | 20 Hold | advmod |
| 22 | to | to | ADP | _ | 23 me | case |
| 23 | me | I | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 20 Hold | obl |
| 24 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 20 Hold | punct |
| 25 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 20 Hold | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | sing speech: express | past · progressive | Mosemanyanamatong | vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location | |||||
| 2 | come | past | a great bird | there | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 3 | hover | past | a great bird not said here | over girls = girl | vn modes_of_being_with_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over they=Location | ||||
| 4 | say speech: assert | past | a great bird not said here | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 5 | hold in a quote | infinitive | a great bird = bird | fast property | vn exist-47.1 «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/pg71335/4/90/