Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of the Bird That Made Milk. II., sentence 91
The children held fast to the bird, and it flew away with them, and took them to their own town.
Who acts: darkness · What happens: hold, fly away, take · To what, where: children, own town
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 (darkness), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 children | det |
| 2 | children | child | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 held | nsubj:pass |
| 3 | held | hold | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 4 | fast | fast | ADV | Degree=Pos | 3 held | advmod |
| 5 | to | to | ADP | _ | 7 bird | case |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 bird | det |
| 7 | bird | bird | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 held | obl |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 11 flew | punct |
| 9 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 11 flew | cc |
| 10 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 flew | nsubj |
| 11 | flew | fly | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 held | parataxis |
| 12 | away | away | ADV | _ | 11 flew | advmod |
| 13 | with | with | ADP | _ | 14 them | case |
| 14 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 flew | obl |
| 15 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 took | punct |
| 16 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 took | cc |
| 17 | took | take | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 11 flew | conj |
| 18 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 17 took | obj |
| 19 | to | to | ADP | _ | 22 town | case |
| 20 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 22 town | nmod:poss |
| 21 | own | own | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 22 town | amod |
| 22 | town | town | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 took | obl |
| 23 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 held | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | hold | participle · passive | the children | to the bird; fast property | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme | ||||
| 2 | fly away | past | darkness | with children = child; away property | vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 3 | take | past | darkness not said here | children = child | children's own town | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent they=Theme to town=Destination |
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/pg71335/4/91/