Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 52

When the dowry is paid she is taken away from her lover, together with any children she may have had by him, and handed over to the husband by her parents, the question of the rightful ownership of the children being settled usually when they are old enough to leave their mother.

Who acts: girl, children · What happens: pay, take away, have, hand over, settle, be · To what, where: dowry, girl, lover, husband, rightful ownership, mother

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 (girl, 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	When	when	SCONJ	_	5 paid	mark
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 dowry	det
3	dowry	dowry	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 paid	nsubj:pass
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 paid	aux:pass
5	paid	pay	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	21 had	advcl
6	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 taken	nsubj
7	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 taken	aux:pass
8	taken	take	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 paid	conj
9	away	away	ADV	_	8 taken	advmod
10	from	from	ADP	_	12 lover	case
11	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 lover	nmod:poss
12	lover	lover	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 taken	obl
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 together	punct
14	together	together	ADV	_	5 paid	advmod
15	with	with	ADP	_	17 children	case
16	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	17 children	det
17	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 paid	obl
18	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	21 had	nsubj
19	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	21 had	aux
20	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	21 had	aux
21	had	have	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
22	by	by	ADP	_	23 him	case
23	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	21 had	obl
24	,	,	PUNCT	_	26 handed	punct
25	and	and	CCONJ	_	26 handed	cc
26	handed	hand	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	21 had	conj
27	over	over	ADP	_	26 handed	compound:prt
28	to	to	ADP	_	30 husband	case
29	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	30 husband	det
30	husband	husband	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 handed	obl
31	by	by	ADP	_	33 parents	case
32	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	33 parents	nmod:poss
33	parents	parent	NOUN	Number=Plur	26 handed	obl
34	,	,	PUNCT	_	36 question	punct
35	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	36 question	det
36	question	question	NOUN	Number=Sing	33 parents	conj
37	of	of	ADP	_	40 ownership	case
38	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	40 ownership	det
39	rightful	rightful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	40 ownership	amod
40	ownership	ownership	NOUN	Number=Sing	36 question	nmod
41	of	of	ADP	_	43 children	case
42	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	43 children	det
43	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	45 settled	obl
44	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	45 settled	aux:pass
45	settled	settle	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	40 ownership	acl:relcl
46	usually	usually	ADV	_	50 old	advmod
47	when	when	SCONJ	_	50 old	mark
48	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	50 old	nsubj
49	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	50 old	cop
50	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	45 settled	advcl
51	enough	enough	ADV	_	50 old	advmod
52	to	to	PART	_	53 leave	mark
53	leave	leave	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	50 old	advcl
54	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	55 mother	nmod:poss
55	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	53 leave	obj
56	.	.	PUNCT	_	21 had	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	other	roles by
1	pay	present · passive		the dowry			with any children; together property	vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Asset
2	take away	present · passive		girl		girl's lover	away property	vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP PP»: subject=Theme from lover=Initial_Location
3	have	may · perfect	girl				by price	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
4	hand over	participle	girl not said here		the husband		by girl's parents and the question of the rightful ownership	vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent to husband=Destination
5	settle	gerund · passive		the rightful ownership not said here			of the children	vn correspond-36.1 «NP V»
6	is	present	children = child				enough, old, usually property	tree rules
7	leave	to-infinitive	children = child not said here	children's mother				vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mother=Theme
8	question			the rightful ownership				nom question «communication 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/pg70959/1/52/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 52

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 52