Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water., sentence 100
While she was wondering where the sounds came from, the big drum opened his lips wide and swallowed her up.
Who acts: way, sounds, big drum · What happens: wonder, come, open, swallow up · To what, where: lips, way
This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (way, sounds, big drum), 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 | While | while | SCONJ | _ | 4 wondering | mark |
| 2 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 wondering | nsubj |
| 3 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 wondering | aux |
| 4 | wondering | wonder | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 14 opened | advcl |
| 5 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 8 came | advmod |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 sounds | det |
| 7 | sounds | sound | NOUN | Number=Plur | 8 came | nsubj |
| 8 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 wondering | advcl |
| 9 | from | from | ADP | _ | 8 came | obl |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 wondering | punct |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 13 drum | det |
| 12 | big | big | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 13 drum | amod |
| 13 | drum | drum | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 opened | nsubj |
| 14 | opened | open | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 15 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 16 lips | nmod:poss |
| 16 | lips | lip | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 opened | obj |
| 17 | wide | wide | ADV | _ | 14 opened | advmod |
| 18 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 19 swallowed | cc |
| 19 | swallowed | swallow | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 14 opened | conj |
| 20 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 swallowed | obj |
| 21 | up | up | ADP | _ | 19 swallowed | compound:prt |
| 22 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 14 opened | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | wonder speech: ask | past · progressive | way | vn care-88.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | |||||
| 2 | come | past | the sounds | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 3 | open | past | the big drum | sound's lips | wide property | vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location lip=Theme | |||
| 4 | swallow up | past | the big drum not said here | way | vn gobble-39.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Patient |
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/pg70959/14/100/