Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xviii.--how the River Came Into Existence; Or, Why a Crab Has No Head., sentence 27
The fish cured his wounds after a time, but, having no eyes to spare, he sent the crab on to his friend the prawn.
Who acts: fish, eyes · What happens: cure, have, spare, send on, wound · To what, where: wounds, eyes, crab
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 (fish, eyes), 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 fish | det |
| 2 | fish | fish | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 cured | nsubj |
| 3 | cured | cure | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 5 wounds | nmod:poss |
| 5 | wounds | wound | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 cured | obj |
| 6 | after | after | ADP | _ | 8 time | case |
| 7 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 8 time | det |
| 8 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 cured | obl |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 sent | punct |
| 10 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 19 sent | cc |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 having | punct |
| 12 | having | have | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 19 sent | ccomp |
| 13 | no | no | DET | PronType=Neg | 14 eyes | det |
| 14 | eyes | eye | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 having | obj |
| 15 | to | to | PART | _ | 16 spare | mark |
| 16 | spare | spare | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 12 having | xcomp |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 having | punct |
| 18 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 sent | nsubj |
| 19 | sent | send | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 cured | conj |
| 20 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 21 crab | det |
| 21 | crab | crab | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 sent | obj |
| 22 | on | on | ADP | _ | 19 sent | compound:prt |
| 23 | to | to | ADP | _ | 25 friend | case |
| 24 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 25 friend | nmod:poss |
| 25 | friend | friend | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 sent | obl |
| 26 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 27 prawn | det |
| 27 | prawn | prawn | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 sent | obj |
| 28 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 cured | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | cure | past | the fish | fish's wounds | time | vn free-10.6.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Causer wound=Source | |||
| 2 | have | gerund | fish not said here | no eyes | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | spare | to-infinitive | no eyes not said here | vn bill-54.5 «NP V NP NP.asset»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 4 | send on | past | fish | the crab | to crab's friend; the prawn obj | tree rules | |||
| 5 | wound | fish | nom wound «state transitive»: poss=agent |
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/pg70959/13/27/