Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xv.--what Happened At Okuni When Anyone Was Killed By Accident., sentence 61
It is a universal custom throughout the district that when food or drink is brought for strangers the provider of the food should first taste it, to show that it is not poisoned.
Who acts: Note, provider · What happens: be, bring, taste, show, not poison · To what, where: universal custom, food, Note · 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 (Note, provider), 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 | It | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 custom | nsubj |
| 2 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 custom | cop |
| 3 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 5 custom | det |
| 4 | universal | universal | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 custom | amod |
| 5 | custom | custom | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 6 | throughout | throughout | ADP | _ | 8 district | case |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 district | det |
| 8 | district | district | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 custom | nmod |
| 9 | that | that | PRON | PronType=Rel | 15 brought | obj |
| 10 | when | when | SCONJ | _ | 15 brought | mark |
| 11 | food | food | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 brought | nsubj:pass |
| 12 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 13 drink | cc |
| 13 | drink | drink | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 food | conj |
| 14 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 15 brought | aux:pass |
| 15 | brought | bring | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 5 custom | parataxis |
| 16 | for | for | ADP | _ | 17 strangers | case |
| 17 | strangers | stranger | NOUN | Number=Plur | 15 brought | obl |
| 18 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 19 provider | det |
| 19 | provider | provider | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 taste | nsubj |
| 20 | of | of | ADP | _ | 22 food | case |
| 21 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 22 food | det |
| 22 | food | food | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 provider | nmod |
| 23 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 25 taste | aux |
| 24 | first | first | ADV | NumForm=Word NumType=Ord | 25 taste | advmod |
| 25 | taste | taste | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 15 brought | parataxis |
| 26 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 25 taste | obj |
| 27 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 29 show | punct |
| 28 | to | to | PART | _ | 29 show | mark |
| 29 | show | show | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 25 taste | conj |
| 30 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 34 poisoned | mark |
| 31 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 34 poisoned | nsubj:pass |
| 32 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 34 poisoned | aux:pass |
| 33 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 34 poisoned | advmod |
| 34 | poisoned | poison | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 29 show | ccomp |
| 35 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 custom | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | present | Note | a universal custom | throughout the district | tree rules | |||
| 2 | bring | present · passive | food or drink | for strangers; that obj | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP ADVP»: subject=Theme that=Destination | ||||
| 3 | taste | should | the provider of the food | Note | first property | vn seem-109 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Theme it=Attribute | |||
| 4 | show | to-infinitive | the provider of the food not said here | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 5 | not poison | present · passive | Note | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: subject=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/pg70959/12/61/