---
title: While hogs, dogs, calves, sheep, geese, and ducks were often capture… — Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the… · tree and pragmatics
description: While hogs, dogs, calves, sheep, geese, and ducks were often captured by alligators, they seldom attacked human beings. Who acts: alligators, ducks. A sentence of «Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular» by Charles C., Jr. Jones, Opening, part 13, with its dependency tree and the
---

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# Negro myths from the Georgia coast, told in the vernacular, Opening, part 13, sentence 56

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While hogs, dogs, calves, sheep, geese, and ducks were often captured by alligators, they seldom attacked human beings.

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**Who acts:** alligators, ducks · **What happens:** capture, attack · **To what, where:** ducks, human beings

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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 (alligators, ducks), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg76586:13:56
# text = While hogs, dogs, calves, sheep, geese, and ducks were often captured by alligators, they seldom attacked human beings.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	hogs	hog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	dogs	dog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	calves	calf	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
8	sheep	sheep	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	geese	goose	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	ducks	duck	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
14	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux:pass	_	_
15	often	often	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	captured	capture	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl	_	_
17	by	by	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	alligators	alligator	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
20	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	seldom	seldom	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
22	attacked	attack	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
23	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	amod	_	_
24	beings	being	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **capture** | past · passive | alligators | ducks |  |  |  | often *property* | vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme |
| 2 | **attack** | past | ducks *= duck* | human beings |  |  |  | hogs and dogs and calves and sheep and geese *conj*; seldom *property* | vn attack-60.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent being=Patient |

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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.

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**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.

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