Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 119
The large fruit-eating bats, about which so many native stories are told, are looked upon as a great delicacy, and at Insofan on the Cross River, there is quite a trade done in them, one bat selling for one rod or sixpence in English money.
Who acts: trade, one bat · What happens: eat, tell, look, be, do, sell · To what, where: many native stories, large eating bats, Insofan, trade, English money · 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 (trade, one bat), 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 | 6 bats | det |
| 2 | large | large | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 bats | amod |
| 3 | fruit | fruit | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 eating | compound |
| 4 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 3 fruit | punct |
| 5 | eating | eat | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 6 bats | amod |
| 6 | bats | bat | NOUN | Number=Plur | 18 looked | nsubj:pass |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 told | punct |
| 8 | about | about | ADP | _ | 9 which | case |
| 9 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 15 told | obl |
| 10 | so | so | ADV | _ | 11 many | advmod |
| 11 | many | many | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 13 stories | amod |
| 12 | native | native | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 13 stories | amod |
| 13 | stories | story | NOUN | Number=Plur | 15 told | nsubj:pass |
| 14 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 15 told | aux:pass |
| 15 | told | tell | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 6 bats | conj |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 6 bats | punct |
| 17 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 18 looked | aux:pass |
| 18 | looked | look | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 19 | upon | upon | ADP | _ | 23 delicacy | case |
| 20 | as | as | ADP | _ | 23 delicacy | case |
| 21 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 23 delicacy | det |
| 22 | great | great | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 23 delicacy | amod |
| 23 | delicacy | delicacy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 looked | obl |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 34 is | punct |
| 25 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 34 is | cc |
| 26 | at | at | ADP | _ | 27 Insofan | case |
| 27 | Insofan | Insofan | PROPN | Number=Sing | 34 is | obl |
| 28 | on | on | ADP | _ | 31 River | case |
| 29 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 31 River | det |
| 30 | Cross | Cross | PROPN | Number=Sing | 31 River | compound |
| 31 | River | River | PROPN | Number=Sing | 27 Insofan | nmod |
| 32 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 27 Insofan | punct |
| 33 | there | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 34 is | expl |
| 34 | is | be | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 18 looked | parataxis |
| 35 | quite | quite | DET | PronType=Ind | 37 trade | det:predet |
| 36 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 37 trade | det |
| 37 | trade | trade | NOUN | Number=Sing | 34 is | nsubj |
| 38 | done | do | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 37 trade | acl |
| 39 | in | in | ADP | _ | 40 them | case |
| 40 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 38 done | obl |
| 41 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 43 bat | punct |
| 42 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 43 bat | nummod |
| 43 | bat | bat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 37 trade | conj |
| 44 | selling | sell | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 43 bat | acl |
| 45 | for | for | ADP | _ | 47 rod | case |
| 46 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 47 rod | nummod |
| 47 | rod | rod | NOUN | Number=Sing | 44 selling | obl |
| 48 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 49 sixpence | cc |
| 49 | sixpence | sixpence | NOUN | Number=Sing | 47 rod | conj |
| 50 | in | in | ADP | _ | 52 money | case |
| 51 | English | English | PROPN | Number=Sing | 52 money | compound |
| 52 | money | money | NOUN | Number=Sing | 44 selling | obl |
| 53 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 18 looked | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | eat | gerund | fruit compound | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 2 | tell speech: assert | present · passive | many native stories | about the large eating bats | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: subject=Recipient about which=Topic | ||||
| 3 | look | present · passive | the large eating bats | upon a great delicacy | vn seem-109-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Attribute | ||||
| 4 | does | present | quite trade and one bat | Insofan on the Cross River; there | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at insofan=Location | ||||
| 5 | do | participle | quite trade and one bat not said here | in STORIES = story | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 6 | sell | gerund | one bat not said here | English money | for one rod or sixpence | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent for rod=Asset |
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/pg70959/1/119/