Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Sikulume., sentence 72
It was so long before they caught it that the young chief had time to reach his companions.
Who acts: mantle, hands, young chief · What happens: be, catch, have, reach · To what, where: mantle, companions
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 (mantle, hands, young chief), 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 | It | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 long | nsubj |
| 2 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 long | cop |
| 3 | so | so | ADV | _ | 4 long | advmod |
| 4 | long | long | ADV | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 5 | before | before | SCONJ | _ | 7 caught | mark |
| 6 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 7 caught | nsubj |
| 7 | caught | catch | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 long | advcl |
| 8 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 7 caught | obj |
| 9 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 13 had | mark |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 chief | det |
| 11 | young | young | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 12 chief | amod |
| 12 | chief | chief | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 had | nsubj |
| 13 | had | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 caught | advcl |
| 14 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 had | obj |
| 15 | to | to | PART | _ | 16 reach | mark |
| 16 | reach | reach | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 14 time | acl |
| 17 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 18 companions | nmod:poss |
| 18 | companions | companion | NOUN | Number=Plur | 16 reach | obj |
| 19 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 long | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | mantle | long property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | catch | past | hands = hand | mantle | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme | ||||
| 3 | have | past | the young chief | time | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 4 | reach | to-infinitive | the young chief not said here | chief's companions | vn body_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent companion=Theme |
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/pg71335/9/72/