Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular, Opening, part 13, sentence 86
The old memories are fast drifting away into the shadows, and the modern negro and the alligator of the present are but partial types of things that were.
Who acts: old memories, modern negro · What happens: be, drift away · To what, where: shadows, partial types
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 (old memories, modern negro), 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 | 3 memories | det |
| 2 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 memories | amod |
| 3 | memories | memory | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 fast | nsubj |
| 4 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 fast | cop |
| 5 | fast | fast | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 6 | drifting | drift | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 5 fast | advcl |
| 7 | away | away | ADV | _ | 6 drifting | advmod |
| 8 | into | into | ADP | _ | 10 shadows | case |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 shadows | det |
| 10 | shadows | shadow | NOUN | Number=Plur | 6 drifting | obl |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 25 types | punct |
| 12 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 25 types | cc |
| 13 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 negro | det |
| 14 | modern | modern | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 15 negro | amod |
| 15 | negro | negro | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 types | nsubj |
| 16 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 18 alligator | cc |
| 17 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 18 alligator | det |
| 18 | alligator | alligator | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 negro | conj |
| 19 | of | of | ADP | _ | 21 present | case |
| 20 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 21 present | det |
| 21 | present | present | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 alligator | nmod |
| 22 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 25 types | cop |
| 23 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 25 types | cc |
| 24 | partial | partial | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 25 types | amod |
| 25 | types | type | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 fast | conj |
| 26 | of | of | ADP | _ | 27 things | case |
| 27 | things | thing | NOUN | Number=Plur | 25 types | nmod |
| 28 | that | that | PRON | PronType=Rel | 29 were | nsubj |
| 29 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 27 things | acl:relcl |
| 30 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 fast | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | the old memories | fast property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | drift away | gerund | the old memories not said here | the shadows | away property | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into shadow=Destination | |||
| 3 | is a | present | the modern negro and the alligator of the present | partial types | of things | tree rules |
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/pg76586/13/86/