Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 27
When a man takes a fancy to a young girl and wishes to marry her, he informs the parents of his intention, and gives them presents.
Who acts: man · What happens: take, wish, marry, inform, give, intend · To what, where: fancy, young girl, girl, parents, presents
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 (man), 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 | When | when | SCONJ | _ | 4 takes | mark |
| 2 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 man | det |
| 3 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 takes | nsubj |
| 4 | takes | take | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 18 informs | advcl |
| 5 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 6 fancy | det |
| 6 | fancy | fancy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 takes | obj |
| 7 | to | to | ADP | _ | 10 girl | case |
| 8 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 10 girl | det |
| 9 | young | young | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 10 girl | amod |
| 10 | girl | girl | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 takes | obl |
| 11 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 12 wishes | cc |
| 12 | wishes | wish | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 takes | conj |
| 13 | to | to | PART | _ | 14 marry | mark |
| 14 | marry | marry | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 12 wishes | xcomp |
| 15 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 14 marry | obj |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 takes | punct |
| 17 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 18 informs | nsubj |
| 18 | informs | inform | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 19 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 20 parents | det |
| 20 | parents | parent | NOUN | Number=Plur | 18 informs | obj |
| 21 | of | of | ADP | _ | 23 intention | case |
| 22 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 23 intention | nmod:poss |
| 23 | intention | intention | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 parents | nmod |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 gives | punct |
| 25 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 26 gives | cc |
| 26 | gives | give | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 18 informs | conj |
| 27 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 26 gives | iobj |
| 28 | presents | present | NOUN | Number=Plur | 26 gives | obj |
| 29 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 18 informs | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | take | present | a man | a fancy | a young girl | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent fancy=Theme to girl=Destination | |||
| 2 | wish | present | a man not said here | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme | |||||
| 3 | marry not said to happen | to-infinitive | a man not said here | girl | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Patient | ||||
| 4 | inform speech: other | present | man | the parents of man's intention | vn tell-37.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent parent=Recipient | ||||
| 5 | give | present | man not said here | presents | parents = parent | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Recipient present=Theme | |||
| 6 | intend | man | nom intention «cognition transitive»: poss=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/pg70959/1/27/