Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Girl Who Disregarded the Custom of Ntonjane., sentence 12
But instead of speaking to the snake respectfully as the others had done, she said mockingly, “Ngcingcingci, ngcingcingci.”
Who acts: snake, others · What happens: speak, do, say · Speech: someone speaks here
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 (snake, others), 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 | But | but | CCONJ | _ | 16 said | cc |
| 2 | instead | instead | ADV | ExtPos=SCONJ | 4 speaking | mark |
| 3 | of | of | ADP | _ | 2 instead | fixed |
| 4 | speaking | speak | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 16 said | advcl |
| 5 | to | to | ADP | _ | 7 snake | case |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 snake | det |
| 7 | snake | snake | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 speaking | obl |
| 8 | respectfully | respectfully | ADV | _ | 13 done | advmod |
| 9 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 13 done | mark |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 others | det |
| 11 | others | other | NOUN | Number=Plur | 13 done | nsubj |
| 12 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 13 done | aux |
| 13 | done | do | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 4 speaking | advcl |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 speaking | punct |
| 15 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 said | nsubj |
| 16 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 17 | mockingly | mockingly | ADV | _ | 16 said | advmod |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 Ngcingcingci | punct |
| 19 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 20 Ngcingcingci | punct |
| 20 | Ngcingcingci | Ngcingcingci | PROPN | Number=Sing | 16 said | parataxis |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 22 ngcingcingci | punct |
| 22 | ngcingcingci | ngcingcingci | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 Ngcingcingci | conj |
| 23 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 16 said | punct |
| 24 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 16 said | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | speak speech: other | gerund | snake not said here | to the snake | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to snake=Co-Agent | ||||
| 2 | do | past · perfect | the others | respectfully property | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 3 | say speech: assert | past | snake | Ngcingcingci and ngcingcingci parataxis; mockingly property | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=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.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/7/12/