Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xiii.--of Chief Amaza, His Wife Achi and the Tortoise., sentence 18
In the evenings the tortoise used to play his drum very skilfully for the people to dance, and as a reward they used to give him dried fish, which he put in the bag.
Who acts: tortoise, people, dried fish · What happens: use, play, dance, give, dry, put · To what, where: drum, dried fish, tortoise, bag
This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xiii.--of Chief Amaza, His Wife Achi and the Tortoise.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tortoise, people, dried fish), 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 evenings | case |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 evenings | det |
| 3 | evenings | evening | NOUN | Number=Plur | 6 used | obl |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 tortoise | det |
| 5 | tortoise | tortoise | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 used | nsubj |
| 6 | used | use | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 7 | to | to | PART | _ | 8 play | mark |
| 8 | play | play | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 6 used | xcomp |
| 9 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 10 drum | nmod:poss |
| 10 | drum | drum | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 play | obj |
| 11 | very | very | ADV | _ | 12 skilfully | advmod |
| 12 | skilfully | skilfully | ADV | _ | 8 play | advmod |
| 13 | for | for | ADP | _ | 15 people | case |
| 14 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 people | det |
| 15 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 8 play | obl |
| 16 | to | to | PART | _ | 17 dance | mark |
| 17 | dance | dance | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 8 play | advcl |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 used | punct |
| 19 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 24 used | cc |
| 20 | as | as | ADP | _ | 22 reward | case |
| 21 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 22 reward | det |
| 22 | reward | reward | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 used | obl |
| 23 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 24 used | nsubj |
| 24 | used | use | VERB | Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 used | conj |
| 25 | to | to | PART | _ | 26 give | mark |
| 26 | give | give | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 24 used | xcomp |
| 27 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 26 give | iobj |
| 28 | dried | dry | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 29 fish | amod |
| 29 | fish | fish | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 give | obj |
| 30 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 33 put | punct |
| 31 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 33 put | nsubj:outer |
| 32 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 33 put | nsubj |
| 33 | put | put | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 29 fish | acl:relcl |
| 34 | in | in | ADP | _ | 36 bag | case |
| 35 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 36 bag | det |
| 36 | bag | bag | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 put | obl |
| 37 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 6 used | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | use | past | the tortoise | evening | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | ||||
| 2 | play | to-infinitive | the tortoise not said here | tortoise's drum | for the people; skilfully property | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP PP.predicate»: agent=Agent drum=Theme for people=Eventuality | |||
| 3 | dance | to-infinitive | the tortoise not said here | vn modes_of_being_with_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 4 | use | past | people | as a reward | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | ||||
| 5 | give | to-infinitive | people not said here | dried fish | tortoise | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient fish=Theme | |||
| 6 | dry | participle | vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient | ||||||
| 7 | put | past | dried fish | the bag | tortoise nsubj | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent in bag=Destination |
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/pg70959/10/18/