Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 45
On the other hand, the younger generation maintain that when the children are old enough to leave their mother they should be handed over to their proper fathers.
Who acts: younger generation, children, old · What happens: maintain, be, leave, hand over · To what, where: other hand, mother, children, proper fathers
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 (younger generation, children, old), 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 | On | on | ADP | _ | 4 hand | case |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 hand | det |
| 3 | other | other | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 hand | amod |
| 4 | hand | hand | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 maintain | obl |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 hand | punct |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 generation | det |
| 7 | younger | young | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 8 generation | amod |
| 8 | generation | generation | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 maintain | nsubj |
| 9 | maintain | maintain | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 10 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 18 leave | mark |
| 11 | when | when | SCONJ | _ | 15 old | mark |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 13 children | det |
| 13 | children | child | NOUN | Number=Plur | 15 old | nsubj |
| 14 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 15 old | cop |
| 15 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 18 leave | nsubj |
| 16 | enough | enough | ADV | _ | 15 old | advmod |
| 17 | to | to | PART | _ | 18 leave | mark |
| 18 | leave | leave | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 9 maintain | ccomp |
| 19 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 20 mother | nmod:poss |
| 20 | mother | mother | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 leave | obj |
| 21 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 24 handed | nsubj |
| 22 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 24 handed | aux |
| 23 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 24 handed | aux:pass |
| 24 | handed | hand | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 18 leave | parataxis |
| 25 | over | over | ADP | _ | 24 handed | compound:prt |
| 26 | to | to | ADP | _ | 29 fathers | case |
| 27 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 29 fathers | nmod:poss |
| 28 | proper | proper | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 29 fathers | amod |
| 29 | fathers | father | NOUN | Number=Plur | 24 handed | obl |
| 30 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 9 maintain | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | maintain | present | the younger generation | the other hand | vn declare-29.4-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | ||||
| 2 | is | present | the children | enough, old property | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | leave | to-infinitive | old | children's mother | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mother=Theme | ||||
| 4 | hand over | should · passive | children = child | children's proper fathers | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme to father=Destination |
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/pg70959/1/45/