Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xiv.--the Fate of Agbor the Hunter, Who Killed His Wife and Children., sentence 4

When he returned in the evening, Agbor used to worry his wife and tell her that he wanted a son, until at last Awo told her husband that, as she did not appear to be lucky with her children, he had better save up and buy a slave who could help him.

Who acts: Agbor, last Awo, that, Awo, slave · What happens: return, use, worry, tell, want, husband · To what, where: wife, son, slave, Agbor · 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 (Agbor, last Awo, that, Awo), 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	ADV	PronType=Int	3 returned	advmod
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 returned	nsubj
3	returned	return	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 used	advcl
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 evening	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 evening	det
6	evening	evening	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 returned	obl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 returned	punct
8	Agbor	Agbor	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 used	nsubj
9	used	use	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	to	to	PART	_	11 worry	mark
11	worry	worry	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 used	xcomp
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 worry	obj
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 tell	cc
15	tell	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 worry	conj
16	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 tell	iobj
17	that	that	SCONJ	_	19 wanted	mark
18	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 wanted	nsubj
19	wanted	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	15 tell	ccomp
20	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	21 son	det
21	son	son	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 wanted	obj
22	,	,	PUNCT	_	27 told	punct
23	until	until	SCONJ	_	27 told	mark
24	at	at	ADP	_	25 last	case
25	last	last	ADJ	Degree=Pos	26 Awo	amod
26	Awo	Awo	PROPN	Number=Sing	27 told	nsubj
27	told	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	19 wanted	conj
28	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	29 husband	nmod:poss
29	husband	husband	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 told	iobj
30	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	29 husband	nsubj
31	,	,	PUNCT	_	36 appear	punct
32	as	as	SCONJ	_	36 appear	mark
33	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	36 appear	nsubj
34	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	36 appear	aux
35	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	36 appear	advmod
36	appear	appear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	27 told	xcomp
37	to	to	PART	_	39 lucky	mark
38	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	39 lucky	cop
39	lucky	lucky	ADJ	Degree=Pos	36 appear	ccomp
40	with	with	ADP	_	42 children	case
41	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	42 children	nmod:poss
42	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	39 lucky	obl
43	,	,	PUNCT	_	45 had	punct
44	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	45 had	nsubj
45	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 used	conj
46	better	well	ADV	Degree=Cmp	45 had	advmod
47	save	save	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	45 had	xcomp
48	up	up	ADP	_	47 save	compound:prt
49	and	and	CCONJ	_	50 buy	cc
50	buy	buy	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	47 save	conj
51	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	52 slave	det
52	slave	slave	NOUN	Number=Sing	50 buy	obj
53	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	55 help	nsubj
54	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	55 help	aux
55	help	help	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	52 slave	acl:relcl
56	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	55 help	obj
57	.	.	PUNCT	_	9 used	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	when	other	roles by
1	return	past	Agbor			evening		vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	use	past	Agbor					vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
3	worry	to-infinitive	Agbor not said here	Agbor's wife				vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus wife=Experiencer
4	tell speech: assert	infinitive	Agbor not said here		wife			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic
5	want	past	Agbor	a son				vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot son=Theme
6	tell speech: assert	past	last Awo					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent husband=Recipient clause=Topic
7	husband		that				Awo nmod:poss	tree rules
8	not appear not said to happen	past · do-support	Awo					vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
9	is	to-infinitive	Awo not said here				with Awo's children; lucky property	tree rules
10	have	past	Agbor				well property	tree rules
11	save up	infinitive	Agbor not said here					vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
12	buy	infinitive	Agbor not said here	a slave				vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent slave=Theme
13	help	could	a slave		Agbor			vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary

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/pg70959/11/4/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xiv.--the Fate of Agbor the Hunter, Who Killed His Wife and Children., sentence 4

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xiv.--the Fate of Agbor the Hunter, Who Killed His Wife and Children., sentence 4