Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 114
The Bassankwala people admitted to the author that they ate human beings, and had always done so, but they asserted vehemently that they did not eat their own dead--these they passed on to the next town, who sent them theirs in exchange.
Who acts: Bassankwala people, people, these, next town · What happens: admit, eat, do, assert, not eat, pass on · To what, where: author, human beings, own dead, next town, people, exchange
This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Opening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Bassankwala people, people, these, next town), 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 people | det |
| 2 | Bassankwala | Bassankwala | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 people | compound |
| 3 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 admitted | nsubj |
| 4 | admitted | admit | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | to | to | ADP | _ | 7 author | case |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 author | det |
| 7 | author | author | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 admitted | obl |
| 8 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 10 ate | mark |
| 9 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 10 ate | nsubj |
| 10 | ate | eat | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 admitted | advcl |
| 11 | human | human | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 12 beings | amod |
| 12 | beings | being | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 ate | obj |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 done | punct |
| 14 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 done | cc |
| 15 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 17 done | aux |
| 16 | always | always | ADV | PronType=Tot | 17 done | advmod |
| 17 | done | do | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 4 admitted | conj |
| 18 | so | so | ADV | _ | 17 done | advmod |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 22 asserted | punct |
| 20 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 22 asserted | cc |
| 21 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 22 asserted | nsubj |
| 22 | asserted | assert | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 admitted | conj |
| 23 | vehemently | vehemently | ADV | _ | 22 asserted | advmod |
| 24 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 28 eat | mark |
| 25 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 28 eat | nsubj |
| 26 | did | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 28 eat | aux |
| 27 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 28 eat | advmod |
| 28 | eat | eat | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 22 asserted | advcl |
| 29 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 31 dead | nmod:poss |
| 30 | own | own | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 31 dead | amod |
| 31 | dead | dead | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 28 eat | obj |
| 32 | -- | -- | PUNCT | _ | 35 passed | punct |
| 33 | these | this | PRON | Number=Plur PronType=Dem | 35 passed | nsubj |
| 34 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 35 passed | nsubj |
| 35 | passed | pass | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 admitted | parataxis |
| 36 | on | on | ADP | _ | 35 passed | compound:prt |
| 37 | to | to | ADP | _ | 40 town | case |
| 38 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 40 town | det |
| 39 | next | next | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 40 town | amod |
| 40 | town | town | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 passed | obl |
| 41 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 43 sent | punct |
| 42 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 43 sent | nsubj |
| 43 | sent | send | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 40 town | acl:relcl |
| 44 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 43 sent | obj |
| 45 | theirs | their | PRON | Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 43 sent | obj |
| 46 | in | in | ADP | _ | 47 exchange | case |
| 47 | exchange | exchange | NOUN | Number=Sing | 43 sent | obl |
| 48 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 admitted | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | admit speech: other | past | the Bassankwala people | the author | vn confess-37.10 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to author=Recipient | ||||
| 2 | eat | past | people | human beings | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent being=Patient | ||||
| 3 | do | past · perfect | the Bassankwala people not said here | always property | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 4 | assert | past | people | vehemently property | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 5 | not eat | past · do-support | people | people's own dead | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dead=Patient | ||||
| 6 | pass on | past | these | the next town | people nsubj | vn send-11.1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent to town=Destination | |||
| 7 | send | past | the next town | people | exchange | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Destination their=Theme |
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: «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Project Gutenberg book 70959 (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/pg70959/1/114/