Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 92

This was proof positive to the boy’s mind that whenever the owl hooted in the daytime a man would die, and no amount of explanation would alter his belief.

Who acts: This, owl, amount, boy, man · What happens: be, hoot, die, alter, mind, amount · To what, where: owl, daytime, mind, belief, explanation

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 (This, owl, amount, boy), 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	This	this	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	4 positive	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 positive	cop
3	proof	proof	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 positive	amod
4	positive	positive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	to	to	ADP	_	9 mind	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 boy	det
7	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 mind	nmod:poss
8	’s	's	PART	_	7 boy	case
9	mind	mind	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 positive	obl
10	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	21 die	obj
11	whenever	whenever	ADV	PronType=Rel	21 die	advmod
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 owl	det
13	owl	owl	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 die	nsubj
14	hooted	hoot	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	13 owl	acl
15	in	in	ADP	_	17 daytime	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 daytime	det
17	daytime	daytime	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 hooted	obl
18	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	19 man	det
19	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 die	nsubj
20	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	21 die	aux
21	die	die	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 mind	acl:relcl
22	,	,	PUNCT	_	29 alter	punct
23	and	and	CCONJ	_	29 alter	cc
24	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	25 amount	det
25	amount	amount	NOUN	Number=Sing	29 alter	nsubj
26	of	of	ADP	_	27 explanation	case
27	explanation	explanation	NOUN	Number=Sing	25 amount	nmod
28	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	29 alter	aux
29	alter	alter	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 positive	parataxis
30	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	31 belief	nmod:poss
31	belief	belief	NOUN	Number=Sing	29 alter	obj
32	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 positive	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	is	past	This			to the boy's mind; positive property	tree rules
2	hoot	participle		the owl not said here	the daytime		vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in daytime=Location
3	die	would	the owl	the boy's mind		a man nsubj; whenever property	tree rules
4	alter	would	no amount of explanation	man's belief			vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent belief=Patient
5	mind		the boy				nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=agent
6	amount			explanation			nom amount «possession transitive»: of=patient
7	believe		man				nom belief «cognition 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.

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🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 92

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 92