Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 24
There is, however, an old custom existing between several towns that no damages can be claimed for adultery.
Who acts: old custom · What happens: be, exist, claim · To what, where: several towns, damages
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 (old custom), 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 | There | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 2 is | expl |
| 2 | is | be | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 2 is | punct |
| 4 | however | however | ADV | _ | 2 is | advmod |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 8 custom | punct |
| 6 | an | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 8 custom | det |
| 7 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 custom | amod |
| 8 | custom | custom | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 is | parataxis |
| 9 | existing | exist | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 8 custom | acl |
| 10 | between | between | ADP | _ | 12 towns | case |
| 11 | several | several | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 12 towns | amod |
| 12 | towns | town | NOUN | Number=Plur | 9 existing | obl |
| 13 | that | that | PRON | PronType=Rel | 18 claimed | obj |
| 14 | no | no | DET | PronType=Neg | 15 damages | det |
| 15 | damages | damage | NOUN | Number=Plur | 18 claimed | nsubj:pass |
| 16 | can | can | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 18 claimed | aux |
| 17 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 18 claimed | aux:pass |
| 18 | claimed | claim | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 12 towns | acl:relcl |
| 19 | for | for | ADP | _ | 20 adultery | case |
| 20 | adultery | adultery | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 claimed | obl |
| 21 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 is | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | be | present | there | a old custom parataxis; however property | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 2 | exist | gerund | a old custom not said here | several towns | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme between town=Location | ||||
| 3 | claim speech: other | can · passive | no damages | for adultery; several towns obj | tree rules |
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/pg70959/1/24/