Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular, Opening, part 12, sentence 119
In the absence of a suitable instrument, a strong twine string, well waxed, sufficed to pull out an incisor.
What happens: wax, suffice, pull out, absent · To what, where: incisor, absence, suitable instrument
This is a sentence of «Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular» by Charles C., Jr. Jones, Opening, part 12. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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 | In | in | ADP | _ | 3 absence | case |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 absence | det |
| 3 | absence | absence | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 4 | of | of | ADP | _ | 7 instrument | case |
| 5 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 7 instrument | det |
| 6 | suitable | suitable | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 instrument | amod |
| 7 | instrument | instrument | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 absence | nmod |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 string | punct |
| 9 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 12 string | det |
| 10 | strong | strong | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 12 string | amod |
| 11 | twine | twine | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 string | compound |
| 12 | string | string | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 absence | appos |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 waxed | punct |
| 14 | well | well | ADV | Degree=Pos | 15 waxed | advmod |
| 15 | waxed | wax | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 12 string | conj |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 sufficed | punct |
| 17 | sufficed | suffice | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 15 waxed | conj |
| 18 | to | to | PART | _ | 19 pull | mark |
| 19 | pull | pull | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 17 sufficed | advcl |
| 20 | out | out | ADP | _ | 19 pull | compound:prt |
| 21 | an | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 22 incisor | det |
| 22 | incisor | incisor | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 pull | obj |
| 23 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 12 string | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | wax | participle | well property | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 2 | suffice | participle | tree rules | ||||||
| 3 | pull out | to-infinitive | a incisor | tree rules | |||||
| 5 | absent | a suitable instrument | nom absence «state transitive»: of=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: «Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular» by Charles C., Jr. Jones, Project Gutenberg book 76586 (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/pg76586/12/119/