Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xv.--what Happened At Okuni When Anyone Was Killed By Accident., sentence 52
The boy told them how Oghabi had brought food for his people the previous night and that he was the only one who had not eaten any, and all the others had died soon after Oghabi left the house.
Who acts: boy, people, OGHABI, only one, others · What happens: tell, bring, be, not eat, die, leave · To what, where: calabashes, Oghabi, only one, any, house · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xv.--what Happened At Okuni When Anyone Was Killed By Accident.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy, people, OGHABI, only one), 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 boy | det |
| 2 | boy | boy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 told | nsubj |
| 3 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 told | iobj |
| 5 | how | how | ADV | PronType=Int | 8 brought | advmod |
| 6 | Oghabi | Oghabi | PROPN | Number=Sing | 8 brought | nsubj:pass |
| 7 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 brought | aux |
| 8 | brought | bring | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 3 told | ccomp |
| 9 | food | food | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 brought | obj |
| 10 | for | for | ADP | _ | 12 people | case |
| 11 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 12 people | nmod:poss |
| 12 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 8 brought | obl:agent |
| 13 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 night | det |
| 14 | previous | previous | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 15 night | amod |
| 15 | night | night | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 brought | obl:unmarked |
| 16 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 22 one | cc |
| 17 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 22 one | mark |
| 18 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 22 one | nsubj |
| 19 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 22 one | cop |
| 20 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 22 one | det |
| 21 | only | only | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 22 one | amod |
| 22 | one | one | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 night | conj |
| 23 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 26 eaten | nsubj |
| 24 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 26 eaten | aux |
| 25 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 26 eaten | advmod |
| 26 | eaten | eat | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 22 one | acl:relcl |
| 27 | any | any | DET | PronType=Ind | 26 eaten | obj |
| 28 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 34 died | punct |
| 29 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 34 died | cc |
| 30 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 32 others | det:predet |
| 31 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 32 others | det |
| 32 | others | other | NOUN | Number=Plur | 34 died | nsubj |
| 33 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 34 died | aux |
| 34 | died | die | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 3 told | ccomp |
| 35 | soon | soon | ADV | Degree=Pos | 34 died | advmod |
| 36 | after | after | SCONJ | _ | 38 left | mark |
| 37 | Oghabi | Oghabi | PROPN | Number=Sing | 38 left | nsubj |
| 38 | left | leave | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 34 died | advcl |
| 39 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 40 house | det |
| 40 | house | house | NOUN | Number=Sing | 38 left | obj |
| 41 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 told | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | tell speech: assert | past | the boy | calabashes = calabash | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 2 | bring | past · perfect · passive | OGHABI's people | Oghabi | night | food obj | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent subject=Destination food=Theme | ||
| 3 | is a | past | OGHABI | the only one | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | not eat | past · perfect | the only one | any | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent any=Patient | ||||
| 5 | die | past · perfect | all others | soon property | vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute | ||||
| 6 | leave | past | Oghabi | the house | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent house=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/pg70959/12/52/