Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water., sentence 125
He then asked them if they could do anything to help him, but the small drums said they could do nothing.
Who acts: man, razors, small drums · What happens: ask, do, help, say · To what, where: razors, anything, man, nothing · Speech: someone speaks here
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 (man, razors, small drums), 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 | He | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 asked | nsubj |
| 2 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 3 asked | advmod |
| 3 | asked | ask | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 asked | obj |
| 5 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 8 do | mark |
| 6 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 8 do | nsubj |
| 7 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 8 do | aux |
| 8 | do | do | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 asked | xcomp |
| 9 | anything | anything | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Ind | 8 do | obj |
| 10 | to | to | PART | _ | 11 help | mark |
| 11 | help | help | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 9 anything | acl |
| 12 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 help | obj |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 said | punct |
| 14 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 18 said | cc |
| 15 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 drums | det |
| 16 | small | small | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 17 drums | amod |
| 17 | drums | drum | NOUN | Number=Plur | 18 said | nsubj |
| 18 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 asked | parataxis |
| 19 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 21 do | nsubj |
| 20 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 21 do | aux |
| 21 | do | do | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 18 said | ccomp |
| 22 | nothing | nothing | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Neg | 21 do | obj |
| 23 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 asked | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ask speech: ask | past | man | razors = razor | then | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic | |||
| 2 | do a condition, not said to happen | could | razors = razor | anything | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Eventuality | ||||
| 3 | help | to-infinitive | razors = razor not said here | anything not said here | man | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary | |||
| 4 | say speech: assert | past | the small drums | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 5 | do | could | razors = razor | nothing | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=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/pg70959/14/125/