Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xv.--what Happened At Okuni When Anyone Was Killed By Accident., sentence 94
So they started off, the cow leading the way, followed by the goats and sheep, and then came the hens and chickens, but the cock stayed some distance behind them all.
Who acts: houses, cow, cock · What happens: start off, lead, follow, come, stay · To what, where: cow, way, hens, distance
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 (houses, cow, cock), 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 | So | so | ADV | _ | 3 started | advmod |
| 2 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 started | nsubj |
| 3 | started | start | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | off | off | ADP | _ | 3 started | compound:prt |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 cow | punct |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 cow | det |
| 7 | cow | cow | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 started | obl |
| 8 | leading | lead | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 7 cow | acl |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 way | det |
| 10 | way | way | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 leading | obj |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 followed | punct |
| 12 | followed | follow | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 7 cow | acl:relcl |
| 13 | by | by | ADP | _ | 15 goats | case |
| 14 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 goats | det |
| 15 | goats | goat | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 followed | obl |
| 16 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 sheep | cc |
| 17 | sheep | sheep | NOUN | Number=Plur | 15 goats | conj |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 21 came | punct |
| 19 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 21 came | cc |
| 20 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 21 came | advmod |
| 21 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 started | conj |
| 22 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 hens | det |
| 23 | hens | hen | NOUN | Number=Plur | 21 came | obj |
| 24 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 25 chickens | cc |
| 25 | chickens | chicken | NOUN | Number=Plur | 23 hens | conj |
| 26 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 30 stayed | punct |
| 27 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 30 stayed | cc |
| 28 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 29 cock | det |
| 29 | cock | cock | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 stayed | nsubj |
| 30 | stayed | stay | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 21 came | conj |
| 31 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 32 distance | det |
| 32 | distance | distance | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 stayed | obj |
| 33 | behind | behind | ADP | _ | 34 them | case |
| 34 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 32 distance | nmod |
| 35 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 34 them | nmod:unmarked |
| 36 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 started | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | start off | past | houses = house | the cow | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality | ||||
| 2 | lead | gerund | the cow not said here | the way | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Theme | ||||
| 3 | follow | participle | the cow not said here | by the goats and sheep | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme by goat=Location | ||||
| 4 | come | past | houses = house not said here | the hens and chickens | then | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location hen=Theme | |||
| 5 | stay | past | the cock | some distance | behind houses = house | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme distance=Location |
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/pg70959/12/94/