Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 83
As an instance of the native belief in the witch bird (the owl), I would mention a case which came under my notice.
Who acts: I, case, my · What happens: mention, come, instance, notice · To what, where: case, notice, native belief
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 (I, case, my), 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 | As | as | ADP | _ | 3 instance | case |
| 2 | an | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 instance | det |
| 3 | instance | instance | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 mention | obl |
| 4 | of | of | ADP | _ | 7 belief | case |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 belief | det |
| 6 | native | native | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 belief | amod |
| 7 | belief | belief | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 instance | nmod |
| 8 | in | in | ADP | _ | 11 bird | case |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 bird | det |
| 10 | witch | witch | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 bird | compound |
| 11 | bird | bird | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 belief | nmod |
| 12 | ( | ( | PUNCT | _ | 14 owl | punct |
| 13 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 14 owl | det |
| 14 | owl | owl | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 bird | appos |
| 15 | ) | ) | PUNCT | _ | 14 owl | punct |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 instance | punct |
| 17 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 19 mention | nsubj |
| 18 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 19 mention | aux |
| 19 | mention | mention | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 20 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 21 case | det |
| 21 | case | case | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 mention | obj |
| 22 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 23 came | nsubj |
| 23 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 21 case | acl:relcl |
| 24 | under | under | ADP | _ | 26 notice | case |
| 25 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 26 notice | nmod:poss |
| 26 | notice | notice | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 came | obl |
| 27 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 19 mention | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | mention speech: other | would | I | a case | as a instance of the native belief in the witch bird | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent case=Topic | |||
| 2 | come | past | a case | my notice | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme under notice=Location | ||||
| 3 | instance | the native belief in the witch bird | nom instance «event transitive»: of=patient | ||||||
| 4 | notice | my | nom notice «communication transitive»: poss=agent |
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/pg70959/1/83/