Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, Introductory—indian Stories, sentence 1
The Indians, when trying to speak English, often use very short sentences with easy words, just as foreigners do.
Who acts: Indians, foreigners · What happens: try, speak, use, do · To what, where: English, short sentences · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, Introductory—indian Stories. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Indians, foreigners), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 Indians | det |
| 2 | Indians | Indian | PROPN | Number=Plur | 5 trying | nsubj |
| 3 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 5 trying | punct |
| 4 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 5 trying | advmod |
| 5 | trying | try | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 6 | to | to | PART | _ | 7 speak | mark |
| 7 | speak | speak | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 5 trying | xcomp |
| 8 | English | English | PROPN | Number=Sing | 7 speak | obj |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 11 use | punct |
| 10 | often | often | ADV | _ | 11 use | advmod |
| 11 | use | use | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 trying | parataxis |
| 12 | very | very | ADV | _ | 13 short | advmod |
| 13 | short | short | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 14 sentences | amod |
| 14 | sentences | sentence | NOUN | Number=Plur | 11 use | obj |
| 15 | with | with | ADP | _ | 17 words | case |
| 16 | easy | easy | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 17 words | amod |
| 17 | words | word | NOUN | Number=Plur | 11 use | obl |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 22 do | punct |
| 19 | just | just | ADV | _ | 22 do | advmod |
| 20 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 22 do | mark |
| 21 | foreigners | foreigner | NOUN | Number=Plur | 22 do | nsubj |
| 22 | do | do | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 11 use | advcl |
| 23 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 trying | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | try | gerund | the Indians | vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 2 | speak speech: other not said to happen | to-infinitive | the Indians not said here | English | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | use | present | short sentences | with easy words; often property | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sentence=Patient | ||||
| 4 | do | present | foreigners | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
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: «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, Project Gutenberg book 73136 (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/pg73136/25/1/