Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 38
While the girl was being rubbed with camwood the friends of the husband would give her presents of sometimes four or five rods each, and his best friend would fire off a gun in the compound where the girl was.
Who acts: friends, best friend · What happens: rub, give, fire · To what, where: girl, presents, compound
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 (friends, best friend), 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 | While | while | SCONJ | _ | 6 rubbed | mark |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 girl | det |
| 3 | girl | girl | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 rubbed | nsubj:pass |
| 4 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 rubbed | aux:pass |
| 5 | being | be | AUX | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 6 rubbed | aux:pass |
| 6 | rubbed | rub | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 15 give | advcl |
| 7 | with | with | ADP | _ | 8 camwood | case |
| 8 | camwood | camwood | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 rubbed | obl |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 friends | det |
| 10 | friends | friend | NOUN | Number=Plur | 15 give | nsubj |
| 11 | of | of | ADP | _ | 13 husband | case |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 13 husband | det |
| 13 | husband | husband | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 friends | nmod |
| 14 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 15 give | aux |
| 15 | give | give | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 16 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 17 presents | nmod:poss |
| 17 | presents | present | NOUN | Number=Plur | 15 give | obj |
| 18 | of | of | ADP | _ | 23 rods | case |
| 19 | sometimes | sometimes | ADV | PronType=Ind | 20 four | advmod |
| 20 | four | four | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 23 rods | nummod |
| 21 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 22 five | cc |
| 22 | five | five | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 20 four | conj |
| 23 | rods | rod | NOUN | Number=Plur | 17 presents | nmod |
| 24 | each | each | DET | PronType=Tot | 23 rods | appos |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 31 fire | punct |
| 26 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 31 fire | cc |
| 27 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 29 friend | nmod:poss |
| 28 | best | good | ADJ | Degree=Sup | 29 friend | amod |
| 29 | friend | friend | NOUN | Number=Sing | 31 fire | nsubj |
| 30 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 31 fire | aux |
| 31 | fire | fire | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 give | obl |
| 32 | off | off | ADP | _ | 34 gun | case |
| 33 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 34 gun | det |
| 34 | gun | gun | NOUN | Number=Sing | 31 fire | nmod |
| 35 | in | in | ADP | _ | 37 compound | case |
| 36 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 37 compound | det |
| 37 | compound | compound | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 give | obl |
| 38 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 41 was | advmod |
| 39 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 40 girl | det |
| 40 | girl | girl | NOUN | Number=Sing | 41 was | nsubj |
| 41 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 37 compound | acl:relcl |
| 42 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 15 give | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | rub | past · passive | the girl | with camwood | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.destination PP.theme»: subject=Destination with camwood=Theme | ||||
| 2 | give | would | the friends of the husband | girl's presents of four rods | the compound | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent present=Theme | |||
| 3 | fire | would | man's best friend | off a gun | 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/pg70959/1/38/