Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xv.--what Happened At Okuni When Anyone Was Killed By Accident., sentence 74
Wherever he went, whether it was into the forest to fell timber for making canvas, or to visit neighbouring towns, he used to take his little son with him and spoil him in many ways.
Who acts: COCK, name · What happens: go, be, fall, make, visit, use · To what, where: forest, timber, canvas, neighbouring towns, little son, COCK
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 (COCK, name), 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 | Wherever | wherever | ADV | PronType=Int | 3 went | advmod |
| 2 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 went | nsubj |
| 3 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 25 used | advcl |
| 4 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 forest | punct |
| 5 | whether | whether | SCONJ | _ | 10 forest | mark |
| 6 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 10 forest | nsubj |
| 7 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 forest | cop |
| 8 | into | into | ADP | _ | 10 forest | case |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 forest | det |
| 10 | forest | forest | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 went | obl |
| 11 | to | to | PART | _ | 12 fell | mark |
| 12 | fell | fall | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 forest | advcl |
| 13 | timber | timber | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 fell | obj |
| 14 | for | for | SCONJ | _ | 15 making | mark |
| 15 | making | make | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 12 fell | advcl |
| 16 | canvas | canvas | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 making | obj |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 visit | punct |
| 18 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 20 visit | cc |
| 19 | to | to | PART | _ | 20 visit | mark |
| 20 | visit | visit | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 12 fell | conj |
| 21 | neighbouring | neighbouring | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 22 towns | amod |
| 22 | towns | town | NOUN | Number=Plur | 20 visit | obj |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 went | punct |
| 24 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 25 used | nsubj |
| 25 | used | use | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 26 | to | to | PART | _ | 27 take | mark |
| 27 | take | take | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 25 used | xcomp |
| 28 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 30 son | nmod:poss |
| 29 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 30 son | amod |
| 30 | son | son | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 take | obj |
| 31 | with | with | ADP | _ | 32 him | case |
| 32 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 27 take | obl |
| 33 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 34 spoil | cc |
| 34 | spoil | spoil | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 27 take | conj |
| 35 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 34 spoil | obj |
| 36 | in | in | ADP | _ | 38 ways | case |
| 37 | many | many | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 38 ways | amod |
| 38 | ways | way | NOUN | Number=Plur | 34 spoil | obl |
| 39 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 25 used | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | go | past | COCK | wherever property | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 2 | is | past | name | the forest | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | fall | past | name not said here | timber | vn become-109.1-1 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Patient timber=Result | ||||
| 4 | make | gerund | name not said here | canvas | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset canvas=Product | ||||
| 5 | visit | to-infinitive | name not said here | neighbouring towns | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent town=Co-Agent | ||||
| 6 | use | past | COCK | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 7 | take | to-infinitive | COCK not said here | COCK's little son | with COCK | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument son=Destination | |||
| 8 | spoil | infinitive | COCK not said here | COCK | many ways | tree rules |
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/pg70959/12/74/