Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 16
I have, however, adhered to the old expression of “dowry” as it is in general use, and is so well known on the “Coast.”
Who acts: I, dowry · What happens: have, adhere, be, know · To what, where: general use, Coast
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 (I, dowry), 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 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 2 have | nsubj |
| 2 | have | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 6 adhered | punct |
| 4 | however | however | ADV | _ | 6 adhered | advmod |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 6 adhered | punct |
| 6 | adhered | adhere | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 2 have | xcomp |
| 7 | to | to | ADP | _ | 10 expression | case |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 expression | det |
| 9 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 10 expression | amod |
| 10 | expression | expression | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 adhered | obl |
| 11 | of | of | ADP | _ | 13 dowry | case |
| 12 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 13 dowry | punct |
| 13 | dowry | dowry | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 expression | nmod |
| 14 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 10 expression | punct |
| 15 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 20 use | mark |
| 16 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 20 use | nsubj |
| 17 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 20 use | cop |
| 18 | in | in | ADP | _ | 20 use | case |
| 19 | general | general | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 20 use | amod |
| 20 | use | use | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 adhered | advcl |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 known | punct |
| 22 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 26 known | cc |
| 23 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 26 known | aux:pass |
| 24 | so | so | ADV | _ | 25 well | advmod |
| 25 | well | well | ADV | Degree=Pos | 26 known | advmod |
| 26 | known | know | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 2 have | conj |
| 27 | on | on | ADP | _ | 30 Coast | case |
| 28 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 30 Coast | det |
| 29 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 30 Coast | punct |
| 30 | Coast | coast | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 known | obl |
| 31 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 have | punct |
| 32 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 2 have | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | have | present | I | tree rules | |||||
| 2 | adhere | participle | I not said here | to the old expression of dowry; however property | vn cling-22.5 «NP V PP.co-theme»: agent=Theme to expression=Co-Theme | ||||
| 3 | is | present | dowry | general use | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | know | present · passive | I not said here | the Coast | well property | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V» |
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/pg70959/1/16/