Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 90

When they returned at one o’clock to work, the boy who had spoken about the owl said, “Man done die for Okuni when them witch bird cry.”

Who acts: sacrifices, boy, Man · What happens: return, work, speak, say, do, die · To what, where: one o’clock, bird cry · 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 (sacrifices, boy, 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	When	when	ADV	PronType=Int	3 returned	advmod
2	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 returned	nsubj
3	returned	return	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	18 said	advcl
4	at	at	ADP	_	6 o’clock	case
5	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 o’clock	nummod
6	o’clock	o'clock	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 returned	obl
7	to	to	PART	_	8 work	mark
8	work	work	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 returned	advcl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 returned	punct
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 boy	det
11	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 said	nsubj
12	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	14 spoken	nsubj
13	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 spoken	aux
14	spoken	speak	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	11 boy	acl:relcl
15	about	about	ADP	_	17 owl	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 owl	det
17	owl	owl	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 spoken	obl
18	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
19	,	,	PUNCT	_	23 die	punct
20	“	"	PUNCT	_	23 die	punct
21	Man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 die	nsubj
22	done	do	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	23 die	amod
23	die	die	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 said	ccomp
24	for	for	ADP	_	25 Okuni	case
25	Okuni	Okuni	PROPN	Number=Sing	23 die	nmod
26	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	28 witch	advmod
27	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	28 witch	nsubj
28	witch	witch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	23 die	advcl
29	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	30 cry	compound
30	cry	cry	NOUN	Number=Sing	28 witch	obj
31	.	.	PUNCT	_	18 said	punct
32	”	"	PUNCT	_	18 said	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	return	past	sacrifices = sacrifice		one o’clock		vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	work	to-infinitive	sacrifices = sacrifice not said here				vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	speak speech: other	past · perfect	the boy			about the owl	vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent about owl=Topic
4	say speech: assert	past	the boy				vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
5	do in a quote	participle					vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
6	die in a quote		Man			for Okuni	tree rules
7	witch in a quote	present	sacrifices = sacrifice	bird cry			tree rules

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/pg70959/1/90/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 90

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 90