Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xiii.--of Chief Amaza, His Wife Achi and the Tortoise., sentence 39
He continued to dance a little way off, and then returned two or three times, until the tortoise told him that he could dance as far off as he liked, as he was there to look after Achi.
Who acts: man, tortoise · What happens: continue, dance, return, tell, like, be · To what, where: little way, man · 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 (man, 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 | He | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 continued | nsubj |
| 2 | continued | continue | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | to | to | PART | _ | 4 dance | mark |
| 4 | dance | dance | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 2 continued | xcomp |
| 5 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 7 way | det |
| 6 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 way | amod |
| 7 | way | way | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 dance | obj |
| 8 | off | off | ADV | _ | 4 dance | advmod |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 returned | punct |
| 10 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 12 returned | cc |
| 11 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 12 returned | advmod |
| 12 | returned | return | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 continued | conj |
| 13 | two | two | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 16 times | nummod |
| 14 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 15 three | cc |
| 15 | three | three | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 13 two | conj |
| 16 | times | time | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 returned | obl:unmarked |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 21 told | punct |
| 18 | until | until | SCONJ | _ | 21 told | mark |
| 19 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 20 tortoise | det |
| 20 | tortoise | tortoise | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 told | nsubj |
| 21 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 continued | conj |
| 22 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 21 told | iobj |
| 23 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 26 dance | mark |
| 24 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 26 dance | nsubj |
| 25 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 26 dance | aux |
| 26 | dance | dance | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 21 told | xcomp |
| 27 | as | as | ADV | _ | 28 far | advmod |
| 28 | far | far | ADV | Degree=Pos | 29 off | advmod |
| 29 | off | off | ADV | _ | 26 dance | advmod |
| 30 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 32 liked | mark |
| 31 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 32 liked | nsubj |
| 32 | liked | like | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 29 off | advcl |
| 33 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 37 there | punct |
| 34 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 37 there | mark |
| 35 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 37 there | nsubj |
| 36 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 37 there | cop |
| 37 | there | there | ADV | PronType=Dem | 21 told | ccomp |
| 38 | to | to | PART | _ | 39 look | mark |
| 39 | look | look | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 37 there | acl |
| 40 | after | after | ADP | _ | 41 Achi | case |
| 41 | Achi | Achi | PROPN | Number=Sing | 39 look | obl |
| 42 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 continued | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | continue | past | man | vn continue-55.3 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 2 | dance | to-infinitive | man not said here | a little way | off property | vn modes_of_being_with_motion-47.3 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location way=Theme | |||
| 3 | return | past | man not said here | then; time | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 4 | tell speech: assert | past | the tortoise | man | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 5 | dance not said to happen | could | man | off property | vn modes_of_being_with_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 6 | like | past | man | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot | |||||
| 7 | is | past | man | there property | tree rules | ||||
| 8 | look | to-infinitive | after Achi | vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
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/pg70959/10/39/