Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xviii.--how the River Came Into Existence; Or, Why a Crab Has No Head., sentence 17

When the meal was over, the elephant told his wife to bring some water for them to drink, as the soup was so hot from the peppers that he had become quite thirsty, but his wife said that she had not got any water that morning, so they had better go to the pond, as it was not so far.

Who acts: meal, elephant, hawk, soup, peppers, wife · What happens: be, tell, bring, drink, become, say · To what, where: wife, water, peppers, pond · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xviii.--how the River Came Into Existence; Or, Why a Crab Has No Head.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (meal, elephant, hawk, soup), 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	When	when	ADV	PronType=Int	5 over	advmod
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 meal	det
3	meal	meal	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 over	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 over	cop
5	over	over	ADV	_	9 told	advmod
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 over	punct
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 elephant	det
8	elephant	elephant	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 told	nsubj
9	told	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 wife	nmod:poss
11	wife	wife	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 told	iobj
12	to	to	PART	_	13 bring	mark
13	bring	bring	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 told	xcomp
14	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	15 water	det
15	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 bring	obj
16	for	for	SCONJ	_	19 drink	mark
17	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 drink	nsubj
18	to	to	PART	_	19 drink	mark
19	drink	drink	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	13 bring	advcl
20	,	,	PUNCT	_	26 hot	punct
21	as	as	SCONJ	_	26 hot	mark
22	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	23 soup	det
23	soup	soup	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 hot	nsubj
24	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	26 hot	cop
25	so	so	ADV	_	26 hot	advmod
26	hot	hot	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 drink	advcl
27	from	from	ADP	_	29 peppers	case
28	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	29 peppers	det
29	peppers	pepper	NOUN	Number=Plur	26 hot	obl
30	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	33 become	nsubj
31	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	33 become	nsubj
32	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	33 become	aux
33	become	become	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	29 peppers	acl:relcl
34	quite	quite	ADV	_	35 thirsty	advmod
35	thirsty	thirsty	ADJ	Degree=Pos	33 become	xcomp
36	,	,	PUNCT	_	40 said	punct
37	but	but	CCONJ	_	40 said	cc
38	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	39 wife	nmod:poss
39	wife	wife	NOUN	Number=Sing	40 said	nsubj
40	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 told	conj
41	that	that	SCONJ	_	45 got	mark
42	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	45 got	nsubj
43	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	45 got	aux
44	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	45 got	advmod
45	got	get	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	40 said	ccomp
46	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	47 water	det
47	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	45 got	obj
48	that	that	SCONJ	_	49 morning	mark
49	morning	morning	NOUN	Number=Sing	45 got	obl:unmarked
50	,	,	PUNCT	_	53 had	punct
51	so	so	ADV	_	53 had	advmod
52	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	53 had	nsubj
53	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 told	ccomp
54	better	good	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	53 had	xcomp
55	go	go	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	54 better	csubj
56	to	to	ADP	_	58 pond	case
57	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	58 pond	det
58	pond	pond	NOUN	Number=Sing	55 go	obl
59	,	,	PUNCT	_	65 far	punct
60	as	as	SCONJ	_	65 far	mark
61	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	65 far	nsubj
62	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	65 far	cop
63	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	65 far	advmod
64	so	so	ADV	_	65 far	advmod
65	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	53 had	advmod
66	.	.	PUNCT	_	9 told	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the meal					over property	tree rules
2	tell speech: assert	past	the elephant		elephant's wife				vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent wife=Recipient clause=Topic
3	bring not said to happen	to-infinitive	the elephant not said here	some water					vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent water=Theme
4	drink	to-infinitive	hawk						vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
5	is	past	the soup			the peppers		hot property	tree rules
6	become	past · perfect	the peppers					elephant nsubj; thirsty property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient
7	say speech: assert	past	elephant's wife						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
8	not get	past · perfect	wife	any water			morning		vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer water=Stimulus
9	have	past	hawk					good property	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
10	go	infinitive				the pond			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to pond=Initial_Location
11	not is	past	soup					far property	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/pg70959/13/17/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xviii.--how the River Came Into Existence; Or, Why a Crab Has No Head., sentence 17

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xviii.--how the River Came Into Existence; Or, Why a Crab Has No Head., sentence 17