Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Girl Who Disregarded the Custom of Ntonjane., sentence 1
There was once a chief’s daughter who had reached the age when it was necessary for her to observe the ntonjane.
Who acts: daughter · What happens: be, reach, observe · To what, where: age, ntonjane
This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of the Girl Who Disregarded the Custom of Ntonjane.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (daughter), 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 | There | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 2 was | expl |
| 2 | was | be | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | once | once | ADV | NumForm=Word NumType=Mult | 2 was | advmod |
| 4 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 5 chief | det |
| 5 | chief | chief | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 daughter | nmod:poss |
| 6 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 5 chief | case |
| 7 | daughter | daughter | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 was | nsubj |
| 8 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 10 reached | nsubj |
| 9 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 reached | aux |
| 10 | reached | reach | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 7 daughter | acl:relcl |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 age | det |
| 12 | age | age | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 reached | obj |
| 13 | when | when | SCONJ | _ | 16 necessary | mark |
| 14 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 necessary | expl |
| 15 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 16 necessary | cop |
| 16 | necessary | necessary | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 10 reached | advcl |
| 17 | for | for | ADP | _ | 18 her | case |
| 18 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 necessary | obl |
| 19 | to | to | PART | _ | 20 observe | mark |
| 20 | observe | observe | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 16 necessary | csubj |
| 21 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 22 ntonjane | det |
| 22 | ntonjane | ntonjane | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 observe | obj |
| 23 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 was | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | be | past | a chief's daughter | there | once property | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||
| 2 | reach | past · perfect | a chief's daughter | the age | vn body_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent age=Theme | ||||
| 3 | is | past | a chief's daughter not said here | for daughter; necessary property | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | observe | to-infinitive | the ntonjane | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent ntonjane=Topic |
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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