Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular, Opening, part 13, sentence 74

In this idiotic and frightened manner he stood idly talking, until what proved to be a large alligator approached and laid violent hold of his right leg.

Who acts: Mossa, large alligator · What happens: stand, talk, prove, be, lay, hold · To what, where: idiotic manner, violent hold, right leg

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 (Mossa, large alligator), 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	_	6 manner	case
2	this	this	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	6 manner	det
3	idiotic	idiotic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 manner	amod
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 frightened	cc
5	frightened	frightened	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 idiotic	conj
6	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 stood	obl
7	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 stood	nsubj
8	stood	stand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	idly	idly	ADV	_	10 talking	advmod
10	talking	talk	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	8 stood	advcl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 proved	punct
12	until	until	SCONJ	_	14 proved	mark
13	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	14 proved	nsubj
14	proved	prove	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 stood	conj
15	to	to	PART	_	20 approached	mark
16	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	20 approached	cop
17	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	19 alligator	det
18	large	large	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 alligator	amod
19	alligator	alligator	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 approached	nsubj
20	approached	approach	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 proved	ccomp
21	and	and	CCONJ	_	22 laid	cc
22	laid	lay	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	20 approached	conj
23	violent	violent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	24 hold	amod
24	hold	hold	NOUN	Number=Sing	22 laid	obj
25	of	of	ADP	_	28 leg	case
26	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	28 leg	nmod:poss
27	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	28 leg	amod
28	leg	leg	NOUN	Number=Sing	24 hold	nmod
29	.	.	PUNCT	_	8 stood	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	stand	past	Mossa		this idiotic manner		vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in manner=Location
2	talk	gerund	Mossa not said here			idly property	vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	prove	past				what nsubj	vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
4	is	to-infinitive	a large alligator			approach property	tree rules
5	lay	past	a large alligator not said here	violent hold of Mossa's right leg			vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hold=Result
6	hold			Mossa's right leg			nom hold «act 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/pg76586/13/74/

🌲 Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular, Opening, part 13, sentence 74

The tree

Pragmatics

Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular, Opening, part 13, sentence 74