Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 94
It is noteworthy that when you get over the watershed between the Cross River and the Katsena (Niger), and into the Munchi country, ju-ju does not seem to exist in the same way as it does further south.
Who acts: owl, you, country ju ju · What happens: be, get, not seem, exist, do · To what, where: watershed, same way
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 (owl, you, country ju ju), 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 | It | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 noteworthy | nsubj |
| 2 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 noteworthy | cop |
| 3 | noteworthy | noteworthy | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 4 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 7 get | mark |
| 5 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 7 get | advmod |
| 6 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 7 get | nsubj |
| 7 | get | get | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 noteworthy | advcl |
| 8 | over | over | ADP | _ | 10 watershed | case |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 watershed | det |
| 10 | watershed | watershed | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 get | obl |
| 11 | between | between | ADP | _ | 14 River | case |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 14 River | det |
| 13 | Cross | Cross | PROPN | Number=Sing | 14 River | compound |
| 14 | River | River | PROPN | Number=Sing | 10 watershed | nmod |
| 15 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 Katsena | cc |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 Katsena | det |
| 17 | Katsena | Katsena | PROPN | Number=Sing | 14 River | conj |
| 18 | ( | ( | PUNCT | _ | 19 Niger | punct |
| 19 | Niger | Niger | PROPN | Number=Sing | 17 Katsena | appos |
| 20 | ) | ) | PUNCT | _ | 19 Niger | punct |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 33 seem | punct |
| 22 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 33 seem | cc |
| 23 | into | into | ADP | _ | 26 country | case |
| 24 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 26 country | det |
| 25 | Munchi | Munchi | PROPN | Number=Sing | 26 country | compound |
| 26 | country | country | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 ju | compound |
| 27 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 country | punct |
| 28 | ju | ju | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 ju | compound |
| 29 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 28 ju | punct |
| 30 | ju | ju | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 seem | nsubj |
| 31 | does | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 33 seem | aux |
| 32 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 33 seem | advmod |
| 33 | seem | seem | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 noteworthy | parataxis |
| 34 | to | to | PART | _ | 35 exist | mark |
| 35 | exist | exist | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 33 seem | xcomp |
| 36 | in | in | ADP | _ | 39 way | case |
| 37 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 39 way | det |
| 38 | same | same | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 39 way | amod |
| 39 | way | way | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 exist | obl |
| 40 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 42 does | mark |
| 41 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 42 does | nsubj |
| 42 | does | do | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 35 exist | advcl |
| 43 | further | further | ADV | _ | 44 south | advmod |
| 44 | south | south | ADV | _ | 42 does | advmod |
| 45 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 noteworthy | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | owl | noteworthy property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | get | present | you | the watershed between the Cross River and the Katsena | vn escape-51.1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme over watershed=Destination | ||||
| 3 | not seem | present · do-support | country ju ju | vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute | |||||
| 4 | exist | to-infinitive | country ju ju not said here | the same way | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in way=Location | ||||
| 5 | do | present | owl | south property | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=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/pg70959/1/94/