Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xiv.--the Fate of Agbor the Hunter, Who Killed His Wife and Children., sentence 36
The pain of the burning was so great that Agbor screamed with agony, but the people laughed and told him that he was now feeling what death was like, and to remember how he had killed his wife and children.
Who acts: pain, Agbor, people · What happens: be, scream, laugh, tell, feel, remember · To what, where: Agbor, burning · 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 (pain, Agbor, people), 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 pain | det |
| 2 | pain | pain | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 great | nsubj |
| 3 | of | of | ADP | _ | 5 burning | case |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 burning | det |
| 5 | burning | burning | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 pain | nmod |
| 6 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 great | cop |
| 7 | so | so | ADV | _ | 8 great | advmod |
| 8 | great | great | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 9 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 11 screamed | mark |
| 10 | Agbor | Agbor | PROPN | Number=Sing | 11 screamed | nsubj |
| 11 | screamed | scream | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 great | advcl |
| 12 | with | with | ADP | _ | 13 agony | case |
| 13 | agony | agony | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 screamed | obl |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 laughed | punct |
| 15 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 18 laughed | cc |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 people | det |
| 17 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 18 laughed | nsubj |
| 18 | laughed | laugh | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 11 screamed | conj |
| 19 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 20 told | cc |
| 20 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 18 laughed | conj |
| 21 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 20 told | iobj |
| 22 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 26 feeling | mark |
| 23 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 26 feeling | nsubj |
| 24 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 26 feeling | aux |
| 25 | now | now | ADV | PronType=Dem | 26 feeling | advmod |
| 26 | feeling | feel | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 20 told | advcl |
| 27 | what | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 26 feeling | obj |
| 28 | death | death | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 like | compound |
| 29 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 30 like | cop |
| 30 | like | like | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 27 what | acl:relcl |
| 31 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 34 remember | punct |
| 32 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 34 remember | cc |
| 33 | to | to | PART | _ | 34 remember | mark |
| 34 | remember | remember | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | 20 told | parataxis |
| 35 | how | how | ADV | PronType=Int | 38 killed | advmod |
| 36 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 38 killed | nsubj:pass |
| 37 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 38 killed | aux |
| 38 | killed | kill | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 34 remember | ccomp |
| 39 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 40 wife | nmod:poss |
| 40 | wife | wife | NOUN | Number=Sing | 38 killed | obj |
| 41 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 42 children | cc |
| 42 | children | child | NOUN | Number=Plur | 40 wife | conj |
| 43 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 great | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | the pain of the burning | great property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | scream speech: express | past | Agbor | with agony | vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with agony=Theme | ||||
| 3 | laugh | past | the people | vn nonverbal_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 4 | tell speech: assert | past | the people not said here | Agbor | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient | ||||
| 5 | feel | past · progressive | Agbor | now | what obj | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Theme | |||
| 6 | is | past | like property | tree rules | |||||
| 7 | remember | to-infinitive | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V what S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | ||||||
| 8 | kill | past · perfect · passive | Agbor | Agbor's wife and children obj | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Experiencer wife=Result | ||||
| 9 | pain | the burning | nom pain «state transitive»: of=patient |
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/pg70959/11/36/