Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 77
No amount of argument has any effect on the native mind, and you cannot convince the man that a ju-ju, such as the one mentioned above, is harmless.
Who acts: amount, you · What happens: have, not convince, mention, be, amount · To what, where: effect, native mind, man, one, argument
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 (amount, you), 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 | No | no | DET | PronType=Neg | 2 amount | det |
| 2 | amount | amount | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 has | nsubj |
| 3 | of | of | ADP | _ | 4 argument | case |
| 4 | argument | argument | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 amount | nmod |
| 5 | has | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 6 | any | any | DET | PronType=Ind | 7 effect | det |
| 7 | effect | effect | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 has | obj |
| 8 | on | on | ADP | _ | 11 mind | case |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 mind | det |
| 10 | native | native | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 11 mind | amod |
| 11 | mind | mind | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 effect | nmod |
| 12 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 convince | punct |
| 13 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 convince | cc |
| 14 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 17 convince | nsubj |
| 15 | can | can | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 17 convince | aux |
| 16 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 17 convince | advmod |
| 17 | convince | convince | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 5 has | parataxis |
| 18 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 19 man | det |
| 19 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 convince | obj |
| 20 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 24 ju | mark |
| 21 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 24 ju | det |
| 22 | ju | ju | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 ju | compound |
| 23 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 22 ju | punct |
| 24 | ju | ju | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 man | nmod |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 29 one | punct |
| 26 | such | such | ADJ | Degree=Pos ExtPos=ADP | 29 one | case |
| 27 | as | as | ADP | _ | 26 such | fixed |
| 28 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 29 one | det |
| 29 | one | one | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 ju | appos |
| 30 | mentioned | mention | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 29 one | acl |
| 31 | above | above | ADV | _ | 30 mentioned | advmod |
| 32 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 34 harmless | punct |
| 33 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 34 harmless | cop |
| 34 | harmless | harmless | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 17 convince | conj |
| 35 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 has | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | have | present | no amount of argument | any effect | the native mind | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent effect=Patient | |||
| 2 | not convince | can | you | the man a ju ju | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus man=Experiencer | ||||
| 3 | mention speech: other | participle | the one not said here | above property | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 4 | is | present | you not said here | harmless property | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | amount | argument | nom amount «possession 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/pg70959/1/77/