Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 47
It is a vexed question, and each case would be decided upon its own merits, the opinion of the parents of the woman weighing largely in the balance.
Who acts: conflict, own merits, woman · What happens: vex, be, decide, weigh, opine · To what, where: vexed question, case, balance, parents
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 (conflict, own merits, woman), 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 | It | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 question | nsubj |
| 2 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 question | cop |
| 3 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 5 question | det |
| 4 | vexed | vex | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 5 question | amod |
| 5 | question | question | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 decided | punct |
| 7 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 12 decided | cc |
| 8 | each | each | DET | PronType=Tot | 9 case | det |
| 9 | case | case | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 decided | nsubj:pass |
| 10 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 12 decided | aux |
| 11 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 12 decided | aux:pass |
| 12 | decided | decide | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 5 question | acl:relcl |
| 13 | upon | upon | ADP | _ | 16 merits | case |
| 14 | its | its | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 16 merits | nmod:poss |
| 15 | own | own | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 16 merits | amod |
| 16 | merits | merit | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 decided | obl:agent |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 opinion | punct |
| 18 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 19 opinion | det |
| 19 | opinion | opinion | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 question | conj |
| 20 | of | of | ADP | _ | 22 parents | case |
| 21 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 22 parents | det |
| 22 | parents | parent | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 opinion | nmod |
| 23 | of | of | ADP | _ | 25 woman | case |
| 24 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 25 woman | det |
| 25 | woman | woman | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 parents | nmod |
| 26 | weighing | weigh | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 25 woman | acl |
| 27 | largely | largely | ADV | _ | 26 weighing | advmod |
| 28 | in | in | ADP | _ | 30 balance | case |
| 29 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 30 balance | det |
| 30 | balance | balance | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 weighing | obl |
| 31 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 question | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | vex | participle | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer | ||||||
| 2 | is a | present | conflict | a vexed question and the opinion of the parents of the woman | the opinion of the parents of the woman conj | tree rules | |||
| 3 | decide | would · passive | conflict's own merits | each case | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent subject=Topic | ||||
| 4 | weigh | gerund | the woman not said here | the balance | largely property | vn register-54.1-2-1 «NP V NP.value»: agent=Theme | |||
| 5 | opine | the parents of the woman | nom opinion «cognition transitive»: of=patient |
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/pg70959/1/47/