Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xviii.--how the River Came Into Existence; Or, Why a Crab Has No Head., sentence 9
When the hunt was over the elephant told the hawk and the crab to bring to him all the animals they had killed, but when he saw that the crab had killed ten animals to his five he was very angry and told the hawk to put him down on the ground and cut his head off.
Who acts: hunt, elephant, animals, five · What happens: be, tell, bring, kill, see, put down · To what, where: hawk, animals, crab, ground, head · 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 (hunt, elephant, animals, five), 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 | 7 elephant | advmod |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 hunt | det |
| 3 | hunt | hunt | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 elephant | nsubj |
| 4 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 elephant | cop |
| 5 | over | over | ADP | _ | 7 elephant | case |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 elephant | det |
| 7 | elephant | elephant | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 told | nsubj |
| 8 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 hawk | det |
| 10 | hawk | hawk | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 told | obj |
| 11 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 13 crab | cc |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 13 crab | det |
| 13 | crab | crab | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 hawk | conj |
| 14 | to | to | PART | _ | 15 bring | mark |
| 15 | bring | bring | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 8 told | ccomp |
| 16 | to | to | ADP | _ | 17 him | case |
| 17 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 15 bring | obl |
| 18 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 20 animals | det:predet |
| 19 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 20 animals | det |
| 20 | animals | animal | NOUN | Number=Plur | 15 bring | obj |
| 21 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 23 killed | nsubj:pass |
| 22 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 23 killed | aux |
| 23 | killed | kill | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 20 animals | acl:relcl |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 saw | punct |
| 25 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 28 saw | cc |
| 26 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 28 saw | advmod |
| 27 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 28 saw | nsubj |
| 28 | saw | see | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 told | parataxis |
| 29 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 33 killed | mark |
| 30 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 31 crab | det |
| 31 | crab | crab | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 killed | nsubj:pass |
| 32 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 33 killed | aux |
| 33 | killed | kill | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 28 saw | ccomp |
| 34 | ten | ten | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 35 animals | nummod |
| 35 | animals | animal | NOUN | Number=Plur | 33 killed | obj |
| 36 | to | to | ADP | _ | 42 angry | case |
| 37 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 42 angry | nmod:poss |
| 38 | five | five | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 42 angry | nsubj |
| 39 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 42 angry | nsubj |
| 40 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 42 angry | cop |
| 41 | very | very | ADV | _ | 42 angry | advmod |
| 42 | angry | angry | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 33 killed | obl |
| 43 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 44 told | cc |
| 44 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 28 saw | conj |
| 45 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 46 hawk | det |
| 46 | hawk | hawk | NOUN | Number=Sing | 44 told | iobj |
| 47 | to | to | PART | _ | 48 put | mark |
| 48 | put | put | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 44 told | ccomp |
| 49 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 48 put | obj |
| 50 | down | down | ADP | _ | 48 put | compound:prt |
| 51 | on | on | ADP | _ | 53 ground | case |
| 52 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 53 ground | det |
| 53 | ground | ground | NOUN | Number=Sing | 48 put | obl |
| 54 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 55 cut | cc |
| 55 | cut | cut | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 28 saw | conj |
| 56 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 57 head | nmod:poss |
| 57 | head | head | NOUN | Number=Sing | 55 cut | obj |
| 58 | off | off | ADP | _ | 55 cut | compound:prt |
| 59 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 told | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | the hunt | over the elephant | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | tell speech: assert | past | the elephant | the hawk and the crab | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent hawk=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 3 | bring not said to happen | to-infinitive | all animals | crab | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent animal=Theme to he=Destination | ||||
| 4 | kill | past · perfect · passive | all animals not said here | animals = animal | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme | ||||
| 5 | see | past | elephant | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | |||||
| 6 | kill | past · perfect · passive | the crab | ten animals obj | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Experiencer animal=Result | ||||
| 7 | is | past | five | crab nmod:poss; angry property | tree rules | ||||
| 8 | tell speech: assert | past | elephant not said here | the hawk | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent hawk=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 9 | put down not said to happen | to-infinitive | crab | the ground | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme on ground=Destination | ||||
| 10 | cut off | past | elephant not said here | crab's head | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector head=Eventuality |
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/pg70959/13/9/