Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 68
Them people come and thief them gin for night time but he no look them man cause he live for sleep, so I make them boy pay for them gin and now I want catch them thief man.”
Who acts: ’, boy, man, I · What happens: come, thief, look, cause, live, make · To what, where: ’
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 (’, boy, man, I), 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 | Them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 come | nsubj |
| 2 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 come | nsubj |
| 3 | come | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 5 thief | cc |
| 5 | thief | thief | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 come | conj |
| 6 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 thief | obj |
| 7 | gin | gin | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 thief | obj |
| 8 | for | for | ADP | _ | 10 time | case |
| 9 | night | night | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 time | compound |
| 10 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 thief | obl |
| 11 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 14 look | cc |
| 12 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 14 look | nsubj |
| 13 | no | no | DET | PronType=Neg | 12 he | conj |
| 14 | look | look | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 come | conj |
| 15 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 14 look | obj |
| 16 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 cause | nsubj |
| 17 | cause | cause | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 14 look | parataxis |
| 18 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 live | nsubj |
| 19 | live | live | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 17 cause | xcomp |
| 20 | for | for | ADP | _ | 21 sleep | case |
| 21 | sleep | sleep | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 live | obl |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 25 make | punct |
| 23 | so | so | ADV | _ | 25 make | advmod |
| 24 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 25 make | nsubj |
| 25 | make | make | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 come | conj |
| 26 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 25 make | obj |
| 27 | boy | boy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 make | obj |
| 28 | pay | pay | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 25 make | xcomp |
| 29 | for | for | ADP | _ | 31 gin | case |
| 30 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 31 gin | compound |
| 31 | gin | gin | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 pay | obl |
| 32 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 35 want | cc |
| 33 | now | now | ADV | PronType=Dem | 35 want | advmod |
| 34 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 35 want | nsubj |
| 35 | want | want | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 28 pay | conj |
| 36 | catch | catch | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 35 want | xcomp |
| 37 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 36 catch | obj |
| 38 | thief | thief | PRON | Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 39 man | nmod:poss |
| 39 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 catch | obj |
| 40 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 come | punct |
| 41 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 3 come | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | come | present | ’ = ' | people nsubj | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 2 | thief | present | ’ = ' not said here | ’ = ' | time | gin obj | tree rules | ||
| 3 | look | infinitive | boy | ’ = ' | vn seem-109-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme they=Attribute | ||||
| 4 | cause | present | man | tree rules | |||||
| 5 | live | infinitive | boy | for sleep | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 6 | make | present | I | ’ = ' | boy obj | tree rules | |||
| 7 | pay | infinitive | ’ = ' not said here | for them gin | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent for gin=Theme | ||||
| 8 | want | present | I | now | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme | ||||
| 9 | catch not said to happen | infinitive | I not said here | ’ = ' | thief's man obj | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: agent=Agent they=Beneficiary man=Theme |
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/pg70959/1/68/