Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular, Opening, part 13, sentence 37

The hoe, the axe, a fence rail, and the club were the offensive weapons; and loud were the cries and great was the fun while the struggling reptile was being beaten to death.

Who acts: hoe, offensive weapons · What happens: be, struggle, beat · To what, where: offensive weapons, cries, great fun, struggling reptile, death

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 (hoe, offensive weapons), 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 hoe	det
2	hoe	hoe	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 weapons	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 axe	punct
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 axe	det
5	axe	axe	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 hoe	conj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 rail	punct
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 rail	det
8	fence	fence	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 rail	compound
9	rail	rail	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 hoe	conj
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 club	punct
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 club	cc
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 club	det
13	club	club	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 hoe	conj
14	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	17 weapons	cop
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 weapons	det
16	offensive	offensive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 weapons	amod
17	weapons	weapon	NOUN	Number=Plur	23 cries	nsubj
18	;	;	PUNCT	_	20 loud	punct
19	and	and	CCONJ	_	20 loud	cc
20	loud	loud	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 weapons	amod
21	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	23 cries	cop
22	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	23 cries	det
23	cries	cry	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
24	and	and	CCONJ	_	28 fun	cc
25	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	28 fun	amod
26	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	28 fun	cop
27	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	28 fun	det
28	fun	fun	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 cries	conj
29	while	while	SCONJ	_	35 beaten	mark
30	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	32 reptile	det
31	struggling	struggle	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	32 reptile	amod
32	reptile	reptile	NOUN	Number=Sing	35 beaten	nsubj
33	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	35 beaten	aux:pass
34	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	35 beaten	aux:pass
35	beaten	beat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	23 cries	acl
36	to	to	ADP	_	37 death	case
37	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	35 beaten	obl
38	.	.	PUNCT	_	23 cries	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	roles by
1	is a	past	the hoe and the axe and a fence rail and the club	the offensive weapons		tree rules
2	is a	past	the offensive weapons	the cries and the great fun		tree rules
3	is a	past	the offensive weapons not said here	the great fun		tree rules
4	struggle	gerund				vn battle-36.4 «NP V»: agent=Agent
5	beat	past · passive		the struggling reptile	death	vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: subject=Patient to death=Recipient

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/pg76586/13/37/

🌲 Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular, Opening, part 13, sentence 37

The tree

Pragmatics

Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular, Opening, part 13, sentence 37