Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Sikulume., sentence 124
Food was brought to them on a new mat, but they said: “It is our custom to eat off old mats only.”
Who acts: people, food · What happens: bring, say, be, eat off · To what, where: Food, people, new mat, custom, old mats · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Sikulume.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (people, food), 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 | Food | food | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 brought | nsubj:pass |
| 2 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 brought | aux:pass |
| 3 | brought | bring | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 4 | to | to | ADP | _ | 5 them | case |
| 5 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 brought | obl |
| 6 | on | on | ADP | _ | 9 mat | case |
| 7 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 9 mat | det |
| 8 | new | new | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 9 mat | amod |
| 9 | mat | mat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 brought | obl |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 said | punct |
| 11 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 13 said | cc |
| 12 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 13 said | nsubj |
| 13 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 brought | conj |
| 14 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 19 custom | punct |
| 15 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 19 custom | punct |
| 16 | It | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 custom | nsubj |
| 17 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 19 custom | cop |
| 18 | our | our | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 19 custom | nmod:poss |
| 19 | custom | custom | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 said | ccomp |
| 20 | to | to | PART | _ | 21 eat | mark |
| 21 | eat | eat | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 19 custom | acl |
| 22 | off | off | ADP | _ | 21 eat | compound:prt |
| 23 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 24 mats | amod |
| 24 | mats | mat | NOUN | Number=Plur | 21 eat | obj |
| 25 | only | only | ADV | _ | 21 eat | advmod |
| 26 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 brought | punct |
| 27 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 3 brought | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | bring | past · passive | Food | people | a new mat | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme to they=Destination | |||
| 2 | say speech: assert | past | people | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 3 | is a in a quote | present | food | our custom | our nmod:poss | tree rules | |||
| 4 | eat off in a quote | to-infinitive | people not said here | old mats | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mat=Patient |
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/pg71335/9/124/