Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 115
Prisoners taken in fighting or people killed were also eaten, and, from what the adjoining countries told the author, natives straying into their bush were similarly treated.
Who acts: adjoining countries, natives · What happens: take, kill, eat, adjoin, tell, stray · To what, where: Prisoners, fighting, people, author, bush, natives · Speech: someone speaks here
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 (adjoining countries, natives), 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 | Prisoners | prisoner | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 eaten | nsubj:pass |
| 2 | taken | take | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 1 Prisoners | acl |
| 3 | in | in | ADP | _ | 4 fighting | case |
| 4 | fighting | fighting | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 taken | obl |
| 5 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 6 people | cc |
| 6 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 fighting | conj |
| 7 | killed | kill | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 6 people | acl |
| 8 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 eaten | aux:pass |
| 9 | also | also | ADV | _ | 10 eaten | advmod |
| 10 | eaten | eat | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 told | punct |
| 12 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 19 told | cc |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 what | punct |
| 14 | from | from | ADP | _ | 15 what | case |
| 15 | what | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 19 told | obj |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 18 countries | det |
| 17 | adjoining | adjoin | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 18 countries | amod |
| 18 | countries | country | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 told | nsubj |
| 19 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 eaten | conj |
| 20 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 21 author | det |
| 21 | author | author | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 told | obj |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 23 natives | punct |
| 23 | natives | native | NOUN | Number=Plur | 30 treated | nsubj:pass |
| 24 | straying | stray | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 23 natives | acl |
| 25 | into | into | ADP | _ | 27 bush | case |
| 26 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 27 bush | nmod:poss |
| 27 | bush | bush | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 straying | obl |
| 28 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 30 treated | aux:pass |
| 29 | similarly | similarly | ADV | _ | 30 treated | advmod |
| 30 | treated | treat | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 19 told | ccomp |
| 31 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 10 eaten | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | take | participle | Prisoners not said here | fighting or people | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent in fighting=Location | ||||
| 2 | kill | participle | people not said here | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer | |||||
| 3 | eat | past · passive | Prisoners | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient | |||||
| 4 | adjoin | gerund | vn contiguous_location-47.8-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||||
| 5 | tell speech: assert | past | the adjoining countries | the author | what obj | tree rules | |||
| 6 | stray | gerund | natives not said here | people's bush | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into bush=Destination | ||||
| 7 | treat | past · passive | natives | similarly property | vn equip-13.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=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: «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/pg70959/1/115/