Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 20

The next stick may represent twenty yams given to the mother, and the following sticks may mean twenty-five rods, a silk handkerchief, a bar of soap and some bottles of gin.

Who acts: next stick, following sticks · What happens: represent, give, follow, mean · To what, where: twenty yams, mother, five rods

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 (next stick, following sticks), 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	3 stick	det
2	next	next	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 stick	amod
3	stick	stick	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 represent	nsubj
4	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 represent	aux
5	represent	represent	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	twenty	twenty	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 yams	nummod
7	yams	yam	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 represent	obj
8	given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 yams	acl
9	to	to	ADP	_	11 mother	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 mother	det
11	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 given	obl
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 mean	punct
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	18 mean	cc
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 sticks	det
15	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	16 sticks	amod
16	sticks	stick	NOUN	Number=Plur	18 mean	nsubj
17	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	18 mean	aux
18	mean	mean	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 represent	conj
19	twenty	twenty	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	21 five	compound
20	-	-	PUNCT	_	19 twenty	punct
21	five	five	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	22 rods	nummod
22	rods	rod	NOUN	Number=Plur	18 mean	obj
23	,	,	PUNCT	_	26 handkerchief	punct
24	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	26 handkerchief	det
25	silk	silk	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 handkerchief	compound
26	handkerchief	handkerchief	NOUN	Number=Sing	22 rods	conj
27	,	,	PUNCT	_	29 bar	punct
28	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	29 bar	det
29	bar	bar	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 handkerchief	appos
30	of	of	ADP	_	31 soap	case
31	soap	soap	NOUN	Number=Sing	29 bar	nmod
32	and	and	CCONJ	_	34 bottles	cc
33	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	34 bottles	det
34	bottles	bottle	NOUN	Number=Plur	22 rods	conj
35	of	of	ADP	_	36 gin	case
36	gin	gin	NOUN	Number=Sing	34 bottles	nmod
37	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 represent	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	roles by
1	represent	may	the next stick	twenty yams		vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot yam=Theme
2	give	participle		twenty yams not said here	the mother	vn give-13.1-1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to mother=Recipient
3	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
4	mean	may	the following sticks	five rods and a silk handkerchief and some bottles of gin		vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rod=Topic

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/pg70959/1/20/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 20

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 20