Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xv.--what Happened At Okuni When Anyone Was Killed By Accident., sentence 99
The rabbit said that he thought he could bring the Chief and all his people back to life again, but they must be very careful not to let the frog look at them as if he did they would surely die.
Who acts: rabbit, people, frog · What happens: say, think, bring, be, not let, look · To what, where: Chief, life, frog · 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 (rabbit, people, frog), 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 rabbit | det |
| 2 | rabbit | rabbit | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 said | nsubj |
| 3 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 6 thought | mark |
| 5 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 6 thought | nsubj |
| 6 | thought | think | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 said | ccomp |
| 7 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 9 bring | nsubj |
| 8 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 9 bring | aux |
| 9 | bring | bring | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 6 thought | ccomp |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 Chief | det |
| 11 | Chief | Chief | PROPN | Number=Sing | 9 bring | obj |
| 12 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 15 people | cc |
| 13 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 15 people | det:predet |
| 14 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 15 people | nmod:poss |
| 15 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 11 Chief | conj |
| 16 | back | back | ADV | _ | 9 bring | advmod |
| 17 | to | to | ADP | _ | 18 life | case |
| 18 | life | life | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 bring | obl |
| 19 | again | again | ADV | _ | 9 bring | advmod |
| 20 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 careful | punct |
| 21 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 26 careful | cc |
| 22 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 26 careful | nsubj |
| 23 | must | must | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 26 careful | aux |
| 24 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 26 careful | cop |
| 25 | very | very | ADV | _ | 26 careful | advmod |
| 26 | careful | careful | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 said | conj |
| 27 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 29 let | advmod |
| 28 | to | to | PART | _ | 29 let | mark |
| 29 | let | let | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | 26 careful | parataxis |
| 30 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 31 frog | det |
| 31 | frog | frog | NOUN | Number=Sing | 29 let | obj |
| 32 | look | look | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 29 let | xcomp |
| 33 | at | at | ADP | _ | 34 them | case |
| 34 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 32 look | obl |
| 35 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 38 did | mark |
| 36 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 38 did | mark |
| 37 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 38 did | nsubj |
| 38 | did | do | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 42 die | advcl |
| 39 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 42 die | nsubj |
| 40 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 42 die | aux |
| 41 | surely | surely | ADV | _ | 42 die | advmod |
| 42 | die | die | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 32 look | parataxis |
| 43 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 said | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | past | the rabbit | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | think speech: other | past | rabbit | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | |||||
| 3 | bring | could | rabbit | the Chief and rabbit's people | life | again | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent chief=Theme to life=Destination | ||
| 4 | is | must | people | careful property | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | not let | to-infinitive | the frog | tree rules | |||||
| 6 | look | infinitive | the frog not said here | at people | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at they=Theme | ||||
| 7 | do | past | rabbit | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 8 | die | would | people | surely property | vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
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/pg70959/12/99/