Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XVI. Custer’s Heart, sentence 6

It has long, slender leaves curved exactly like a saber; the edges of these leaves are so sharp that they cut the hand that attempts to tear them from the plant.

Who acts: plant, edges, hand · What happens: have, curve, be, cut, attempt, tear · To what, where: long slender leaves, hand, edges

This is a sentence of «Wigwam stories told by North American Indians» by Mary Catherine Judd, XVI. Custer’s Heart. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (plant, edges, hand), 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	2 has	nsubj
2	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 leaves	amod
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 long	punct
5	slender	slender	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 leaves	amod
6	leaves	leaf	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 has	obj
7	curved	curve	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 leaves	acl
8	exactly	exactly	ADV	_	11 saber	advmod
9	like	like	ADP	_	11 saber	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 saber	det
11	saber	saber	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 curved	obl
12	;	;	PUNCT	_	20 sharp	punct
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 edges	det
14	edges	edge	NOUN	Number=Plur	20 sharp	nsubj
15	of	of	ADP	_	17 leaves	case
16	these	this	DET	Number=Plur PronType=Dem	17 leaves	det
17	leaves	leaf	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 edges	nmod
18	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	20 sharp	cop
19	so	so	ADV	_	20 sharp	advmod
20	sharp	sharp	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 has	parataxis
21	that	that	SCONJ	_	23 cut	mark
22	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	23 cut	nsubj
23	cut	cut	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	20 sharp	advcl
24	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	25 hand	det
25	hand	hand	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 cut	obj
26	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	27 attempts	nsubj
27	attempts	attempt	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	25 hand	acl:relcl
28	to	to	PART	_	29 tear	mark
29	tear	tear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	27 attempts	xcomp
30	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	29 tear	obj
31	from	from	ADP	_	33 plant	case
32	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	33 plant	det
33	plant	plant	NOUN	Number=Sing	29 tear	obl
34	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 has	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	have	present	plant	long slender leaves		vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leaf=Patient
2	curve	participle		long slender leaves not said here	like a saber	vn knead-26.5 «NP.material V PP.product»: agent=Material
3	is	present	the edges of this leaves		sharp property	tree rules
4	cut	past	edges = edge	the hand		vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset hand=Product
5	attempt	present	the hand			vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
6	tear not said to happen	to-infinitive	the hand not said here	edges = edge	from the plant	vn split-23.2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent they=Patient from plant=Co-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: «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/pg73136/85/6/

🌲 Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XVI. Custer’s Heart, sentence 6

The tree

Pragmatics

Wigwam stories told by North American Indians, XVI. Custer’s Heart, sentence 6