Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Sikulume., sentence 81

They began to bite it, and bit till all their teeth were broken, when they returned to their own village.

Who acts: hands · What happens: begin, bite, break, return · To what, where: hut, bit

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 (hands), 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	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 began	nsubj
2	began	begin	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 bite	mark
4	bite	bite	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 began	xcomp
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 bite	obj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 bit	punct
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 bit	cc
8	bit	bit	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 broken	nsubj:pass
9	till	till	ADP	_	12 teeth	case
10	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	12 teeth	det:predet
11	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 teeth	nmod:poss
12	teeth	tooth	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 bit	nmod
13	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 broken	aux:pass
14	broken	break	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 began	parataxis
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 returned	punct
16	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	18 returned	advmod
17	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	18 returned	nsubj
18	returned	return	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 began	conj
19	to	to	ADP	_	22 village	case
20	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	22 village	nmod:poss
21	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	22 village	amod
22	village	village	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 returned	obl
23	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 began	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	begin	past	hands = hand			vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
2	bite	to-infinitive	hands = hand not said here	hut		vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient
3	break	past · passive		bit till hands's teeth		vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient
4	return	past	hands = hand		to hands's own village result	vn convert-26.6.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Patient to village=Result

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/pg71335/9/81/

🌲 Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Sikulume., sentence 81

The tree

Pragmatics

Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Sikulume., sentence 81