Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xiv.--the Fate of Agbor the Hunter, Who Killed His Wife and Children., sentence 28
The chief told Agbor that he had no right to kill his wife and children, and sentenced Agbor to be killed by degrees.
Who acts: chief, Agbor, degrees · What happens: tell, have, kill, sentence · To what, where: Agbor, right, wife · Speech: someone speaks here
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 (chief, Agbor, degrees), 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 chief | det |
| 2 | chief | chief | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 told | nsubj |
| 3 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | Agbor | Agbor | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 told | iobj |
| 5 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 7 had | mark |
| 6 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 7 had | nsubj |
| 7 | had | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 told | ccomp |
| 8 | no | no | DET | PronType=Neg | 9 right | det |
| 9 | right | right | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 had | obj |
| 10 | to | to | PART | _ | 11 kill | mark |
| 11 | kill | kill | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 9 right | acl |
| 12 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 13 wife | nmod:poss |
| 13 | wife | wife | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 kill | obj |
| 14 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 15 children | cc |
| 15 | children | child | NOUN | Number=Plur | 13 wife | conj |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 sentenced | punct |
| 17 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 18 sentenced | cc |
| 18 | sentenced | sentence | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 told | conj |
| 19 | Agbor | Agbor | PROPN | Number=Sing | 18 sentenced | obj |
| 20 | to | to | PART | _ | 22 killed | mark |
| 21 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 22 killed | aux:pass |
| 22 | killed | kill | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 18 sentenced | advcl |
| 23 | by | by | ADP | _ | 24 degrees | case |
| 24 | degrees | degree | NOUN | Number=Plur | 22 killed | obl |
| 25 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 told | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | tell speech: assert | past | the chief | Agbor | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent agbor=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 2 | have | past | Agbor | no right | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent right=Patient | ||||
| 3 | kill | to-infinitive | Agbor not said here | Agbor's wife and children | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wife=Theme | ||||
| 4 | sentence | past | the chief not said here | Agbor | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | kill | to-infinitive · passive | degrees | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
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/pg70959/11/28/