Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xiii.--of Chief Amaza, His Wife Achi and the Tortoise., sentence 6
When the dry season came, it was the custom of the Okuni women to go into the bush to the small rivers, and having dammed them up with sticks and clay, they would bale the water out and catch the fish.
Who acts: dry season, poison, rivers · What happens: come, be, go, dam up, bale out, catch · To what, where: custom, bush, rivers, water, fish
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 (dry season, poison, rivers), 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 | When | when | SCONJ | _ | 5 came | mark |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 season | det |
| 3 | dry | dry | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 season | amod |
| 4 | season | season | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 came | nsubj |
| 5 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 custom | advcl |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 5 came | punct |
| 7 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 10 custom | nsubj |
| 8 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 custom | cop |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 custom | det |
| 10 | custom | custom | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 11 | of | of | ADP | _ | 14 women | case |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 14 women | det |
| 13 | Okuni | Okuni | PROPN | Number=Sing | 14 women | compound |
| 14 | women | woman | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 custom | nmod |
| 15 | to | to | PART | _ | 16 go | mark |
| 16 | go | go | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 10 custom | acl |
| 17 | into | into | ADP | _ | 19 bush | case |
| 18 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 19 bush | det |
| 19 | bush | bush | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 go | obl |
| 20 | to | to | ADP | _ | 23 rivers | case |
| 21 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 rivers | det |
| 22 | small | small | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 23 rivers | amod |
| 23 | rivers | river | NOUN | Number=Plur | 16 go | obl |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 27 dammed | punct |
| 25 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 27 dammed | cc |
| 26 | having | have | AUX | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 27 dammed | aux |
| 27 | dammed | dam | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 10 custom | conj |
| 28 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 27 dammed | obj |
| 29 | up | up | ADP | _ | 27 dammed | compound:prt |
| 30 | with | with | ADP | _ | 31 sticks | case |
| 31 | sticks | stick | NOUN | Number=Plur | 27 dammed | obl |
| 32 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 33 clay | cc |
| 33 | clay | clay | NOUN | Number=Sing | 31 sticks | conj |
| 34 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 37 bale | punct |
| 35 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 37 bale | nsubj |
| 36 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 37 bale | aux |
| 37 | bale | bale | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 10 custom | parataxis |
| 38 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 39 water | det |
| 39 | water | water | NOUN | Number=Sing | 37 bale | obj |
| 40 | out | out | ADP | _ | 37 bale | compound:prt |
| 41 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 42 catch | cc |
| 42 | catch | catch | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 37 bale | conj |
| 43 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 44 fish | det |
| 44 | fish | fish | NOUN | Number=Sing | 42 catch | obj |
| 45 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 10 custom | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | come | past | the dry season | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 2 | is a | past | poison | the custom | of the Okuni women | tree rules | |||
| 3 | go | to-infinitive | the bush | to the small rivers | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location PP.destination»: agent=Theme into bush=Initial_Location to river=Destination | ||||
| 4 | dam up | gerund · perfect | poison not said here | rivers = river | with sticks and clay | vn fill-9.8 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent they=Destination with stick=Theme | |||
| 5 | bale out | would | rivers = river | the water | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | catch | infinitive | rivers = river not said here | the fish | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fish=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/pg70959/10/6/