Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 95
In the year 1909, while I was Political Officer on the Anglo-German Boundary Commission, I marched up through the Munchi country into Northern Nigeria, and back again, being absent from my district altogether about six months.
Who acts: I · What happens: be, march up · To what, where: Political Officer, German Boundary Commission, Munchi country, district
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), 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 | In | in | ADP | _ | 3 year | case |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 year | det |
| 3 | year | year | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 marched | obl |
| 4 | 1909 | 1909 | NUM | NumForm=Digit NumType=Card | 3 year | flat |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 Officer | punct |
| 6 | while | while | SCONJ | _ | 10 Officer | mark |
| 7 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 10 Officer | nsubj |
| 8 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 Officer | cop |
| 9 | Political | political | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 10 Officer | amod |
| 10 | Officer | officer | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 year | appos |
| 11 | on | on | ADP | _ | 17 Commission | case |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 Commission | det |
| 13 | Anglo | Anglo | X | _ | 15 German | compound |
| 14 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 13 Anglo | punct |
| 15 | German | German | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 17 Commission | amod |
| 16 | Boundary | Boundary | PROPN | Number=Sing | 17 Commission | compound |
| 17 | Commission | Commission | PROPN | Number=Sing | 10 Officer | nmod |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 year | punct |
| 19 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 20 marched | nsubj |
| 20 | marched | march | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 21 | up | up | ADP | _ | 20 marched | compound:prt |
| 22 | through | through | ADP | _ | 25 country | case |
| 23 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 25 country | det |
| 24 | Munchi | Munchi | PROPN | Number=Sing | 25 country | compound |
| 25 | country | country | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 marched | obl |
| 26 | into | into | ADP | _ | 28 Nigeria | case |
| 27 | Northern | Northern | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 28 Nigeria | amod |
| 28 | Nigeria | Nigeria | PROPN | Number=Sing | 20 marched | obl |
| 29 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 35 absent | punct |
| 30 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 35 absent | cc |
| 31 | back | back | ADV | _ | 32 again | advmod |
| 32 | again | again | ADV | _ | 35 absent | advmod |
| 33 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 35 absent | punct |
| 34 | being | be | AUX | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 35 absent | cop |
| 35 | absent | absent | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 20 marched | parataxis |
| 36 | from | from | ADP | _ | 38 district | case |
| 37 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 38 district | nmod:poss |
| 38 | district | district | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 absent | obl |
| 39 | altogether | altogether | ADV | _ | 35 absent | advmod |
| 40 | about | about | ADV | _ | 41 six | advmod |
| 41 | six | six | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 42 months | nummod |
| 42 | months | month | NOUN | Number=Plur | 35 absent | obl:unmarked |
| 43 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 20 marched | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | past | I | Political Officer | the German Boundary Commission | tree rules | |||
| 2 | march up | past | I | the Munchi country | year | into Northern Nigeria result | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme into nigeria=Result | ||
| 3 | is | gerund | my district | again; month | absent, altogether property | 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/pg70959/1/95/