Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 14
The word “dowry” comes frequently into these tales, and is used as meaning the amount paid to the parents of the girl by the husband.
Who acts: word · What happens: come, use, mean, pay · To what, where: tales, amount
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 (word), 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 | 2 word | det |
| 2 | word | word | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 comes | nsubj |
| 3 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 4 dowry | punct |
| 4 | dowry | dowry | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 word | appos |
| 5 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 4 dowry | punct |
| 6 | comes | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 7 | frequently | frequently | ADV | _ | 6 comes | advmod |
| 8 | into | into | ADP | _ | 10 tales | case |
| 9 | these | this | DET | Number=Plur PronType=Dem | 10 tales | det |
| 10 | tales | tale | NOUN | Number=Plur | 6 comes | obl |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 used | punct |
| 12 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 14 used | cc |
| 13 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 14 used | aux:pass |
| 14 | used | use | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 6 comes | conj |
| 15 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 16 meaning | mark |
| 16 | meaning | mean | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 14 used | advcl |
| 17 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 18 amount | det |
| 18 | amount | amount | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 meaning | obj |
| 19 | paid | pay | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 18 amount | acl |
| 20 | to | to | ADP | _ | 22 parents | case |
| 21 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 22 parents | det |
| 22 | parents | parent | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 paid | obl |
| 23 | of | of | ADP | _ | 25 girl | case |
| 24 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 25 girl | det |
| 25 | girl | girl | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 parents | nmod |
| 26 | by | by | ADP | _ | 28 husband | case |
| 27 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 28 husband | det |
| 28 | husband | husband | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 paid | obl |
| 29 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 6 comes | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | come | present | the word | this tales | frequently property | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme into tale=Initial_Location | |||
| 2 | use | present · passive | the word not said here | vn eat-39.1 «NP V» | |||||
| 3 | mean | gerund | the word not said here | the amount | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent amount=Topic | ||||
| 4 | pay | participle | the amount not said here | to the parents of the girl; by the husband | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
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/pg70959/1/14/