Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 84
Some few years ago I happened to be having some bush cleared and some large trees cut down on the station at Okuni.
Who acts: I, bush · What happens: happen, have, clear, cut down · To what, where: large trees, station
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, bush), 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 | Some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 3 years | det |
| 2 | few | few | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 years | amod |
| 3 | years | year | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 ago | obl:unmarked |
| 4 | ago | ago | ADV | _ | 6 happened | advmod |
| 5 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 6 happened | nsubj |
| 6 | happened | happen | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 7 | to | to | PART | _ | 9 having | mark |
| 8 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 9 having | aux |
| 9 | having | have | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 6 happened | advcl |
| 10 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 11 bush | det |
| 11 | bush | bush | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 cleared | nsubj |
| 12 | cleared | clear | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 having | parataxis |
| 13 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 16 trees | cc |
| 14 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 16 trees | det |
| 15 | large | large | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 16 trees | amod |
| 16 | trees | tree | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 cleared | obj |
| 17 | cut | cut | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 16 trees | acl |
| 18 | down | down | ADP | _ | 17 cut | compound:prt |
| 19 | on | on | ADP | _ | 21 station | case |
| 20 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 21 station | det |
| 21 | station | station | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 cut | obl |
| 22 | at | at | ADP | _ | 23 Okuni | case |
| 23 | Okuni | Okuni | PROPN | Number=Sing | 17 cut | obl |
| 24 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 6 happened | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | happen | past | I | ago property | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 2 | have | to-infinitive · progressive | I not said here | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 3 | clear | past | some bush | some large trees | vn clear-10.3-1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent tree=Source | ||||
| 4 | cut down | participle | some large trees not said here | the station | at Okuni | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent at okuni=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/pg70959/1/84/