Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 49

If the parents were satisfied, they would probably say that the child or children should belong to the father, but if, on the other hand, the presents were not large enough, they would most likely urge that the children of their daughter born before she was married should belong to her lawful husband.

Who acts: parents, child, presents, children · What happens: be, say, belong, not be, urge, bear · To what, where: other hand, daughter, opinion, likely urge · 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 (parents, child, presents, 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	If	if	SCONJ	_	5 satisfied	mark
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 parents	det
3	parents	parent	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 satisfied	nsubj
4	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 satisfied	cop
5	satisfied	satisfied	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 say	advcl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 satisfied	punct
7	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 say	nsubj
8	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 say	aux
9	probably	probably	ADV	_	10 say	advmod
10	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
11	that	that	SCONJ	_	17 belong	mark
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 child	det
13	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 belong	nsubj
14	or	or	CCONJ	_	15 children	cc
15	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 child	conj
16	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	17 belong	aux
17	belong	belong	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 say	ccomp
18	to	to	ADP	_	20 father	case
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 father	det
20	father	father	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 belong	obl
21	,	,	PUNCT	_	41 urge	punct
22	but	but	CCONJ	_	41 urge	cc
23	if	if	SCONJ	_	34 large	mark
24	,	,	PUNCT	_	23 if	punct
25	on	on	ADP	_	28 hand	case
26	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	28 hand	det
27	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	28 hand	amod
28	hand	hand	NOUN	Number=Sing	34 large	obl
29	,	,	PUNCT	_	28 hand	punct
30	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	31 presents	det
31	presents	present	NOUN	Number=Plur	34 large	nsubj
32	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	34 large	cop
33	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	34 large	advmod
34	large	large	ADJ	Degree=Pos	41 urge	advcl
35	enough	enough	ADV	_	34 large	advmod
36	,	,	PUNCT	_	34 large	punct
37	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	41 urge	nsubj
38	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	41 urge	aux
39	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	40 likely	advmod
40	likely	likely	ADJ	Degree=Pos	41 urge	amod
41	urge	urge	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 say	parataxis
42	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	54 belong	obj
43	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	44 children	det
44	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	54 belong	nsubj
45	of	of	ADP	_	47 daughter	case
46	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	47 daughter	nmod:poss
47	daughter	daughter	NOUN	Number=Sing	44 children	nmod
48	born	bear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	47 daughter	acl
49	before	before	SCONJ	_	52 married	mark
50	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	52 married	nsubj:pass
51	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	52 married	aux:pass
52	married	marry	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	48 born	advcl
53	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	54 belong	aux
54	belong	belong	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	41 urge	acl:relcl
55	to	to	ADP	_	58 husband	case
56	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	58 husband	nmod:poss
57	lawful	lawful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	58 husband	amod
58	husband	husband	NOUN	Number=Sing	54 belong	obl
59	.	.	PUNCT	_	10 say	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	is a condition, not said to happen	past	the parents			satisfied property	tree rules
2	say speech: assert	would	parents = parent			probably property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	belong	should	the child or children			to the father	vn attend-107.4-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme
4	not is a condition, not said to happen	past	the presents		the other hand	enough, large property	tree rules
5	urge	would	parents = parent				tree rules
6	bear	participle		parents's daughter not said here			vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer
7	marry	past · passive		opinion			vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient
8	belong	should	the children of parents's daughter	likely urge		to opinion's lawful husband	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.

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🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 49

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 49