Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 126
Immediately the bats hear the gun fired, they desert the trees they are sheltering in, and commence circling around in the air, flying about in a most aimless and erratic sort of way, until, after about ten minutes, they settle on a different tree.
Who acts: bats · What happens: hear, fire, desert, shelter, commence, circle around · To what, where: gun, trees, air, most aimless sort, way
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 (bats), 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 | Immediately | immediately | ADV | _ | 4 hear | advmod |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 bats | det |
| 3 | bats | bat | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 hear | nsubj |
| 4 | hear | hear | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 gun | det |
| 6 | gun | gun | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 hear | obj |
| 7 | fired | fire | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 6 gun | acl |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 desert | punct |
| 9 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 10 desert | nsubj |
| 10 | desert | desert | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 hear | conj |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 trees | det |
| 12 | trees | tree | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 desert | obj |
| 13 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 15 sheltering | nsubj |
| 14 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 15 sheltering | aux |
| 15 | sheltering | shelter | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 10 desert | advcl |
| 16 | in | in | ADV | _ | 15 sheltering | advmod |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 commence | punct |
| 18 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 19 commence | cc |
| 19 | commence | commence | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 hear | conj |
| 20 | circling | circle | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 19 commence | xcomp |
| 21 | around | around | ADV | _ | 20 circling | advmod |
| 22 | in | in | ADP | _ | 24 air | case |
| 23 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 24 air | det |
| 24 | air | air | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 circling | obl |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 flying | punct |
| 26 | flying | fly | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 20 circling | conj |
| 27 | about | about | ADV | _ | 26 flying | advmod |
| 28 | in | in | ADP | _ | 34 sort | case |
| 29 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 34 sort | det |
| 30 | most | most | ADJ | Degree=Sup | 34 sort | amod |
| 31 | aimless | aimless | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 34 sort | amod |
| 32 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 33 erratic | cc |
| 33 | erratic | erratic | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 31 aimless | conj |
| 34 | sort | sort | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 flying | obl |
| 35 | of | of | ADP | _ | 36 way | case |
| 36 | way | way | NOUN | Number=Sing | 34 sort | nmod |
| 37 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 43 minutes | punct |
| 38 | until | until | ADP | _ | 43 minutes | case |
| 39 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 43 minutes | punct |
| 40 | after | after | ADP | _ | 43 minutes | case |
| 41 | about | about | ADV | _ | 42 ten | advmod |
| 42 | ten | ten | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 43 minutes | nummod |
| 43 | minutes | minute | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 commence | obl |
| 44 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 46 settle | punct |
| 45 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 46 settle | nsubj |
| 46 | settle | settle | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 19 commence | conj |
| 47 | on | on | ADP | _ | 50 tree | case |
| 48 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 50 tree | det |
| 49 | different | different | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 50 tree | amod |
| 50 | tree | tree | NOUN | Number=Sing | 46 settle | obl |
| 51 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 hear | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | hear | present | the bats | the gun | immediately property | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer gun=Stimulus | |||
| 2 | fire | participle | the gun not said here | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 3 | desert | present | bats = bat | the trees | vn leave-51.2-1 «NP V NP.initial_location»: agent=Theme tree=Source | ||||
| 4 | shelter | present · progressive | bats = bat | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 5 | commence | present | the bats not said here | minute | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | ||||
| 6 | circle around | gerund | the bats not said here | the air | around property | vn contiguous_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme | |||
| 7 | fly | gerund | the bats not said here | a most aimless sort of way | about property | vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in sort=Location | |||
| 8 | settle | present | bats = bat | on a different tree | vn correspond-36.1 «NP V PP.theme S»: agent=Agent on tree=Topic | ||||
| 9 | sort | way | nom sort «cognition transitive»: of=patient |
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/pg70959/1/126/