Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 116
These people, however, all promised, and were apparently perfectly sincere, at once to stop this abominable practice, at the same time saying that they were unaware they had been doing wrong, as they had never heard the white man’s laws before.
Who acts: same time, people · What happens: promise, be, stop, say, do, not hear · To what, where: people, abominable practice · 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 (same time, people), 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 | These | this | DET | Number=Plur PronType=Dem | 2 people | det |
| 2 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 7 promised | nsubj |
| 3 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 2 people | punct |
| 4 | however | however | ADV | _ | 7 promised | advmod |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 however | punct |
| 6 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 7 promised | nsubj:pass |
| 7 | promised | promise | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 sincere | punct |
| 9 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 13 sincere | cc |
| 10 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 13 sincere | cop |
| 11 | apparently | apparently | ADV | _ | 13 sincere | advmod |
| 12 | perfectly | perfectly | ADV | _ | 13 sincere | advmod |
| 13 | sincere | sincere | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 promised | conj |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 stop | punct |
| 15 | at | at | ADP | _ | 16 once | case |
| 16 | once | once | ADV | NumForm=Word NumType=Mult | 18 stop | obl |
| 17 | to | to | PART | _ | 18 stop | mark |
| 18 | stop | stop | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 7 promised | parataxis |
| 19 | this | this | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 21 practice | det |
| 20 | abominable | abominable | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 21 practice | amod |
| 21 | practice | practice | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 stop | obj |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 time | punct |
| 23 | at | at | ADP | _ | 26 time | case |
| 24 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 26 time | det |
| 25 | same | same | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 26 time | amod |
| 26 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 stop | obl:unmarked |
| 27 | saying | say | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 26 time | acl |
| 28 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 31 unaware | mark |
| 29 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 31 unaware | nsubj |
| 30 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 31 unaware | cop |
| 31 | unaware | unaware | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 27 saying | ccomp |
| 32 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 35 doing | nsubj |
| 33 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 35 doing | aux |
| 34 | been | be | AUX | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 35 doing | aux |
| 35 | doing | do | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 31 unaware | ccomp |
| 36 | wrong | wrong | ADV | _ | 35 doing | advmod |
| 37 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 42 heard | punct |
| 38 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 42 heard | mark |
| 39 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 42 heard | nsubj:pass |
| 40 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 42 heard | aux |
| 41 | never | never | ADV | PronType=Neg | 42 heard | advmod |
| 42 | heard | hear | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 27 saying | ccomp |
| 43 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 45 man | det |
| 44 | white | white | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 45 man | amod |
| 45 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 47 laws | nmod:poss |
| 46 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 45 man | case |
| 47 | laws | law | NOUN | Number=Plur | 42 heard | obj |
| 48 | before | before | ADV | _ | 42 heard | advmod |
| 49 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 7 promised | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | promise speech: promise | participle · passive | this people | however property | vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: subject=Theme | ||||
| 2 | is | past | apparently, perfectly, sincere property | tree rules | |||||
| 3 | stop | to-infinitive | this abominable practice | time | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality practice=Eventuality | ||||
| 4 | say speech: assert | gerund | the same time not said here | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 5 | is | past | people | unaware property | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | do | past · perfect · progressive | people | wrong property | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 7 | not hear | past · perfect · passive | people | the white man's laws obj; before property | 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: «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/pg70959/1/116/