Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Tangalimlibo., sentence 123
The boys said: “Sing again, we did not hear you plainly.”
Who acts: boys, we · What happens: say, sing, not hear · To what, where: you · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Tangalimlibo.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boys, we), 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 boys | det |
| 2 | boys | boy | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 said | nsubj |
| 3 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 6 Sing | punct |
| 5 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 6 Sing | punct |
| 6 | Sing | sing | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 said | ccomp |
| 7 | again | again | ADV | _ | 6 Sing | advmod |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 hear | punct |
| 9 | we | we | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs | 12 hear | nsubj |
| 10 | did | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 hear | aux |
| 11 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 12 hear | advmod |
| 12 | hear | hear | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 6 Sing | conj |
| 13 | you | you | PRON | Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs | 12 hear | obj |
| 14 | plainly | plainly | ADV | _ | 12 hear | advmod |
| 15 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 6 Sing | punct |
| 16 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 6 Sing | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | past | the boys | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | sing speech: express in a quote | infinitive | again | vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 3 | not hear in a quote | past · do-support | we | you | plainly property | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer you=Stimulus |
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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