Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xiii.--of Chief Amaza, His Wife Achi and the Tortoise., sentence 33
The tortoise then asked the ju-ju man some questions, and at last agreed that he should take the baby’s head, but that he should leave the body.
Who acts: tortoise · What happens: ask, agree, take, leave · To what, where: questions, ju ju man, last, head, body · Speech: someone speaks here
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), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 tortoise | det |
| 2 | tortoise | tortoise | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 asked | nsubj |
| 3 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 4 asked | advmod |
| 4 | asked | ask | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 9 man | det |
| 6 | ju | ju | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 man | compound |
| 7 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 6 ju | punct |
| 8 | ju | ju | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 man | compound |
| 9 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 asked | obj |
| 10 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 11 questions | det |
| 11 | questions | question | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 asked | obj |
| 12 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 agreed | punct |
| 13 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 16 agreed | cc |
| 14 | at | at | ADP | _ | 15 last | case |
| 15 | last | last | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 16 agreed | obl |
| 16 | agreed | agree | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 asked | parataxis |
| 17 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 20 take | mark |
| 18 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 20 take | nsubj |
| 19 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 20 take | aux |
| 20 | take | take | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 16 agreed | ccomp |
| 21 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 22 baby | det |
| 22 | baby | baby | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 head | nmod:poss |
| 23 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 22 baby | case |
| 24 | head | head | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 take | obj |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 30 leave | punct |
| 26 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 30 leave | cc |
| 27 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 30 leave | mark |
| 28 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 30 leave | nsubj |
| 29 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 30 leave | aux |
| 30 | leave | leave | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 asked | conj |
| 31 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 32 body | det |
| 32 | body | body | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 leave | obj |
| 33 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 asked | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ask speech: ask | past | the tortoise | some questions | the ju ju man | then | tree rules | ||
| 2 | agree speech: agree | past | last | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 3 | take | should | tortoise | the baby's head | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Theme | ||||
| 4 | leave | should | tortoise | the body | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent body=Theme |
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/pg70959/10/33/