Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xiv.--the Fate of Agbor the Hunter, Who Killed His Wife and Children., sentence 1
Agbor was an Okuni man, and was married to a woman named Awo, by whom he had two children, but they were both girls, much to his annoyance, as he wanted a boy who would be able to help him with his work when he grew up.
Who acts: Agbor, children, boy · What happens: be, marry, name, have, want, help · To what, where: Okuni man, woman, two children, girls, boy
This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xiv.--the Fate of Agbor the Hunter, Who Killed His Wife and Children.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Agbor, children, boy), 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 | Agbor | Agbor | PROPN | Number=Sing | 5 man | nsubj |
| 2 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 man | cop |
| 3 | an | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 5 man | det |
| 4 | Okuni | Okuni | PROPN | Number=Sing | 5 man | compound |
| 5 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 9 married | punct |
| 7 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 9 married | cc |
| 8 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 married | aux:pass |
| 9 | married | marry | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 5 man | acl:relcl |
| 10 | to | to | ADP | _ | 12 woman | case |
| 11 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 12 woman | det |
| 12 | woman | woman | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 married | obl |
| 13 | named | name | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 12 woman | acl |
| 14 | Awo | Awo | PROPN | Number=Sing | 13 named | xcomp |
| 15 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 whom | punct |
| 16 | by | by | ADP | _ | 17 whom | case |
| 17 | whom | whom | PRON | PronType=Rel | 9 married | conj |
| 18 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 had | nsubj |
| 19 | had | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 17 whom | acl:relcl |
| 20 | two | two | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 21 children | nummod |
| 21 | children | child | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 had | obj |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 27 girls | punct |
| 23 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 27 girls | cc |
| 24 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 27 girls | nsubj |
| 25 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 27 girls | cop |
| 26 | both | both | DET | PronType=Tot | 27 girls | det |
| 27 | girls | girl | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 man | appos |
| 28 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 32 annoyance | punct |
| 29 | much | much | ADV | _ | 32 annoyance | advmod |
| 30 | to | to | ADP | _ | 32 annoyance | case |
| 31 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 32 annoyance | nmod:poss |
| 32 | annoyance | annoyance | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 girls | conj |
| 33 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 36 wanted | punct |
| 34 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 36 wanted | mark |
| 35 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 36 wanted | nsubj |
| 36 | wanted | want | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 man | parataxis |
| 37 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 38 boy | det |
| 38 | boy | boy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 wanted | obj |
| 39 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 42 able | nsubj |
| 40 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 42 able | aux |
| 41 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 42 able | cop |
| 42 | able | able | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 38 boy | acl:relcl |
| 43 | to | to | PART | _ | 44 help | mark |
| 44 | help | help | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 42 able | xcomp |
| 45 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 44 help | obj |
| 46 | with | with | ADP | _ | 48 work | case |
| 47 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 48 work | nmod:poss |
| 48 | work | work | NOUN | Number=Sing | 44 help | obl |
| 49 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 51 grew | advmod |
| 50 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 51 grew | nsubj |
| 51 | grew | grow | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 36 wanted | conj |
| 52 | up | up | ADP | _ | 51 grew | compound:prt |
| 53 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 man | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | past | Agbor | a Okuni man | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | marry | past · passive | a Okuni man not said here | to a woman; a Okuni man conj | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: to woman=Co-Patient | ||||
| 3 | name | participle | a woman not said here | Awo xcomp | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 4 | have | past | Agbor | two children | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Patient | ||||
| 5 | is a | past | children = child | both girls and Agbor's annoyance | Agbor's annoyance conj | tree rules | |||
| 6 | want | past | Agbor | a boy | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot boy=Theme | ||||
| 7 | is | would | a boy | able property | tree rules | ||||
| 8 | help | to-infinitive | a boy not said here | boy | with Agbor's work | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary with work=Theme | |||
| 9 | grow up | past | Agbor | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 10 | annoy | Agbor | nom annoyance «state transitive»: poss=agent | ||||||
| 11 | work | Agbor | nom work «act intransitive»: poss=agent |
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/pg70959/11/1/