Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 44
Most of the old chiefs say that such children should go to the man who marries the mother and pays the dowry, as children are a valuable asset.
Who acts: Most, such children, man, children · What happens: say, go, marry, pay, be · To what, where: mother, dowry, valuable asset · Speech: someone speaks here
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 (Most, such children, man, children), 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 | Most | most | ADJ | Degree=Sup | 6 say | nsubj |
| 2 | of | of | ADP | _ | 5 chiefs | case |
| 3 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 chiefs | det |
| 4 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 chiefs | amod |
| 5 | chiefs | chief | NOUN | Number=Plur | 1 Most | nmod |
| 6 | say | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 7 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 11 go | mark |
| 8 | such | such | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 9 children | amod |
| 9 | children | child | NOUN | Number=Plur | 11 go | nsubj |
| 10 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 11 go | aux |
| 11 | go | go | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 6 say | ccomp |
| 12 | to | to | ADP | _ | 14 man | case |
| 13 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 14 man | det |
| 14 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 go | obl |
| 15 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 16 marries | nsubj |
| 16 | marries | marry | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 14 man | acl:relcl |
| 17 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 18 mother | det |
| 18 | mother | mother | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 marries | obj |
| 19 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 20 pays | cc |
| 20 | pays | pay | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 16 marries | conj |
| 21 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 22 dowry | det |
| 22 | dowry | dowry | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 pays | obj |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 29 asset | punct |
| 24 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 29 asset | mark |
| 25 | children | child | NOUN | Number=Plur | 29 asset | nsubj |
| 26 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 29 asset | cop |
| 27 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 29 asset | det |
| 28 | valuable | valuable | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 29 asset | amod |
| 29 | asset | asset | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 go | obl |
| 30 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 6 say | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | present | Most of the old chiefs | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | go | should | such children | to the man | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to man=Initial_Location | ||||
| 3 | marry | present | the man | the mother | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mother=Patient | ||||
| 4 | pay | present | the man not said here | the dowry | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dowry=Asset | ||||
| 5 | is a | present | children | a valuable asset | 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/pg70959/1/44/