Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular, Opening, part 13, sentence 32

A constant depredator was the alligator upon the fish-traps which guarded the mouths of the short creeks emptying into the rivers.

Who acts: constant depredator, fish traps, short creeks · What happens: be, guard, empty · To what, where: alligator, mouths, rivers

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 (constant depredator, fish traps, short creeks), 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	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 depredator	det
2	constant	constant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 depredator	amod
3	depredator	depredator	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 alligator	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 alligator	cop
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 alligator	det
6	alligator	alligator	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	upon	upon	ADP	_	11 traps	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 traps	det
9	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 traps	compound
10	-	-	PUNCT	_	9 fish	punct
11	traps	trap	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 alligator	nmod
12	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	13 guarded	nsubj
13	guarded	guard	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 traps	acl:relcl
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 mouths	det
15	mouths	mouth	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 guarded	obj
16	of	of	ADP	_	19 creeks	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 creeks	det
18	short	short	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 creeks	amod
19	creeks	creek	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 mouths	nmod
20	emptying	empty	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	19 creeks	acl
21	into	into	ADP	_	23 rivers	case
22	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	23 rivers	det
23	rivers	river	NOUN	Number=Plur	20 emptying	obl
24	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 alligator	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	is a	past	a constant depredator	the alligator		upon the fish traps	tree rules
2	guard	past	the fish traps	the mouths of the short creeks			vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mouth=Beneficiary
3	empty	gerund	the short creeks not said here		the rivers		vn clear-10.3-1 «NP.Source V»: agent=Source

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/pg76586/13/32/

🌲 Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular, Opening, part 13, sentence 32

The tree

Pragmatics

Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular, Opening, part 13, sentence 32