Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, Menabozho, or the Great White Hare, sentence 27
The Indians themselves do not seem to explain why they did it.
Who acts: Indians · What happens: not seem, explain, do · To what, where: Hare · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, Menabozho, or the Great White Hare. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Indians), 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 | 6 seem | nsubj |
| 3 | themselves | themselves | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Emp Reflex=Yes | 2 Indians | nmod:unmarked |
| 4 | do | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 6 seem | aux |
| 5 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 6 seem | advmod |
| 6 | seem | seem | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 7 | to | to | PART | _ | 8 explain | mark |
| 8 | explain | explain | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 6 seem | xcomp |
| 9 | why | why | ADV | PronType=Int | 11 did | advmod |
| 10 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 did | nsubj |
| 11 | did | do | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 explain | ccomp |
| 12 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 did | obj |
| 13 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 6 seem | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not seem | present · do-support | the Indians Indians | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute | |||||
| 2 | explain speech: assert | to-infinitive | the Indians Indians not said here | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 3 | do | past | Indians = indian | Hare | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |
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/pg73136/69/27/