Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular, Opening, part 13, sentence 11

It seemed as if for once the sable dentist was to be baffled in his aim.

Who acts: It, John · What happens: seem, baffle, aim · To what, where: sable dentist, aim

This is a sentence of «Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular» by Charles C., Jr. Jones, Opening, part 13. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (It, John), 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 seemed	nsubj
2	seemed	seem	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	as	as	SCONJ	_	13 baffled	mark
4	if	if	SCONJ	_	13 baffled	mark
5	for	for	SCONJ	_	13 baffled	mark
6	once	once	SCONJ	_	13 baffled	mark
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 dentist	det
8	sable	sable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 dentist	amod
9	dentist	dentist	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 baffled	nsubj:pass
10	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 baffled	aux:pass
11	to	to	PART	_	13 baffled	mark
12	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	13 baffled	aux:pass
13	baffled	baffle	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 seemed	xcomp
14	in	in	ADP	_	16 aim	case
15	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	16 aim	nmod:poss
16	aim	aim	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 baffled	obl
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 seemed	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	seem	past	It			vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute
2	baffle a condition, not said to happen	past · passive		the sable dentist	John's aim	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer
3	aim		John			nom aim «cognition intransitive»: poss=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: «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/pg76586/13/11/

🌲 Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular, Opening, part 13, sentence 11

The tree

Pragmatics

Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular, Opening, part 13, sentence 11