Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 87
I at once asked him why he said so, and he replied, “When them witch bird cry for day time, some man go die.”
Who acts: I, Okuni, labourers, man · What happens: ask, say, reply, witch, go · To what, where: Okuni, bird cry, die · Speech: someone speaks here
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, Okuni, labourers, man), 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 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 4 asked | nsubj |
| 2 | at | at | ADP | _ | 3 once | case |
| 3 | once | once | ADV | NumForm=Word NumType=Mult | 4 asked | obl |
| 4 | asked | ask | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 asked | iobj |
| 6 | why | why | ADV | PronType=Int | 8 said | advmod |
| 7 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 8 said | nsubj |
| 8 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 asked | advcl |
| 9 | so | so | ADV | _ | 8 said | advmod |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 replied | punct |
| 11 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 13 replied | cc |
| 12 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 13 replied | nsubj |
| 13 | replied | reply | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 asked | parataxis |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 27 go | punct |
| 15 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 27 go | punct |
| 16 | When | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 18 witch | advmod |
| 17 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 18 witch | nsubj |
| 18 | witch | witch | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 27 go | advcl |
| 19 | bird | bird | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 cry | compound |
| 20 | cry | cry | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 witch | obj |
| 21 | for | for | ADP | _ | 23 time | case |
| 22 | day | day | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 time | compound |
| 23 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 witch | obl |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 witch | punct |
| 25 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 26 man | det |
| 26 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 go | nsubj |
| 27 | go | go | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 13 replied | ccomp |
| 28 | die | die | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 go | obj |
| 29 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 27 go | punct |
| 30 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 27 go | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ask speech: ask | past | I | Okuni | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient | ||||
| 2 | say speech: assert | past | Okuni | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 3 | reply speech: assert | past | Okuni | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 4 | witch in a quote | present | labourers = labourer | bird cry | time | tree rules | |||
| 5 | go in a quote | infinitive | some man | die | vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location die=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/pg70959/1/87/