Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 80
Whenever a chief died several slaves were killed and buried with him, and it was no uncommon thing for a whole family to accuse another family of witchcraft.
Who acts: chief, slave · What happens: die, kill, bury, be, accuse · To what, where: several slaves, uncommon thing, family
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 (chief, slave), 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 | Whenever | whenever | ADV | PronType=Rel | 4 died | advmod |
| 2 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 chief | det |
| 3 | chief | chief | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 died | nsubj |
| 4 | died | die | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | several | several | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 slaves | amod |
| 6 | slaves | slave | NOUN | Number=Plur | 8 killed | nsubj:pass |
| 7 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 killed | aux:pass |
| 8 | killed | kill | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 4 died | ccomp |
| 9 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 10 buried | cc |
| 10 | buried | bury | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 8 killed | conj |
| 11 | with | with | ADP | _ | 12 him | case |
| 12 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 10 buried | obl |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 thing | punct |
| 14 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 19 thing | cc |
| 15 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 thing | nsubj |
| 16 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 19 thing | cop |
| 17 | no | no | DET | PronType=Neg | 19 thing | det |
| 18 | uncommon | uncommon | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 19 thing | amod |
| 19 | thing | thing | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 died | obl |
| 20 | for | for | ADP | _ | 23 family | case |
| 21 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 23 family | det |
| 22 | whole | whole | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 23 family | amod |
| 23 | family | family | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 thing | nmod |
| 24 | to | to | PART | _ | 25 accuse | mark |
| 25 | accuse | accuse | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 died | advcl |
| 26 | another | another | DET | PronType=Ind | 27 family | det |
| 27 | family | family | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 accuse | obj |
| 28 | of | of | ADP | _ | 29 witchcraft | case |
| 29 | witchcraft | witchcraft | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 family | nmod |
| 30 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 died | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | die | past | a chief | whenever property | vn long-32.2 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme | ||||
| 2 | kill | past · passive | several slaves | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme | |||||
| 3 | bury | participle | with man | vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 4 | is a | past | slave | no uncommon thing | for a whole family | tree rules | |||
| 5 | accuse | to-infinitive | a chief not said here | another family of witchcraft | vn suspect-81 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent family=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/pg70959/1/80/