Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water., sentence 2
Chief ’Njum was a poor man, but he had a farm and a few slaves to work for him.
Who acts: Njum · What happens: be, have, work · To what, where: poor man, farm
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 (Njum), 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 | Chief | Chief | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 Njum | nmod:poss |
| 2 | ’ | 's | PART | _ | 1 Chief | case |
| 3 | Njum | Njum | PROPN | Number=Sing | 7 man | nsubj |
| 4 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 man | cop |
| 5 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 7 man | det |
| 6 | poor | poor | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 man | amod |
| 7 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 11 had | punct |
| 9 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 11 had | cc |
| 10 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 had | nsubj |
| 11 | had | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 man | acl:relcl |
| 12 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 13 farm | det |
| 13 | farm | farm | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 had | obj |
| 14 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 slaves | cc |
| 15 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 17 slaves | det |
| 16 | few | few | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 17 slaves | amod |
| 17 | slaves | slave | NOUN | Number=Plur | 13 farm | conj |
| 18 | to | to | PART | _ | 19 work | mark |
| 19 | work | work | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 11 had | advcl |
| 20 | for | for | ADP | _ | 21 him | case |
| 21 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 work | obl |
| 22 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 7 man | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | past | Chief's Njum | a poor man | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | have | past | Njum | a farm and a few slaves | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent farm=Patient | ||||
| 3 | work | to-infinitive | Njum not said here | for Njum | vn employment-95.3 «NP V PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent for he=Beneficiary |
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/pg70959/14/2/