Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water., sentence 21
He then helped his mother up the tree, and left her sitting on a branch, telling her that he would return the same way after he had finished hunting, late in the afternoon, and take her home.
Who acts: man, mother · What happens: help, leave, sit, tell, return, finish · To what, where: mother, branch, same way, hunting, home · 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, mother), 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 helped | nsubj |
| 2 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 3 helped | advmod |
| 3 | helped | help | 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 mother | nmod:poss |
| 5 | mother | mother | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 helped | obj |
| 6 | up | up | ADP | _ | 8 tree | case |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 tree | det |
| 8 | tree | tree | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 helped | obl |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 11 left | punct |
| 10 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 11 left | cc |
| 11 | left | leave | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 helped | conj |
| 12 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 left | obj |
| 13 | sitting | sit | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 11 left | xcomp |
| 14 | on | on | ADP | _ | 16 branch | case |
| 15 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 16 branch | det |
| 16 | branch | branch | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 sitting | obl |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 telling | punct |
| 18 | telling | tell | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 13 sitting | conj |
| 19 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 18 telling | iobj |
| 20 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 23 return | mark |
| 21 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 23 return | nsubj |
| 22 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 23 return | aux |
| 23 | return | return | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 18 telling | xcomp |
| 24 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 26 way | det |
| 25 | same | same | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 26 way | amod |
| 26 | way | way | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 return | obj |
| 27 | after | after | SCONJ | _ | 30 finished | mark |
| 28 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 30 finished | nsubj |
| 29 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 30 finished | aux |
| 30 | finished | finish | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 23 return | advcl |
| 31 | hunting | hunting | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 finished | obj |
| 32 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 33 late | punct |
| 33 | late | late | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 31 hunting | amod |
| 34 | in | in | ADP | _ | 36 afternoon | case |
| 35 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 36 afternoon | det |
| 36 | afternoon | afternoon | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 late | obl |
| 37 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 39 take | punct |
| 38 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 39 take | cc |
| 39 | take | take | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 helped | conj |
| 40 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 41 home | nmod:poss |
| 41 | home | home | NOUN | Number=Sing | 39 take | obj |
| 42 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 helped | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | help | past | man | man's mother | then | up the tree | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mother=Beneficiary | ||
| 2 | leave | past | man not said here | mother | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | sit | gerund | mother not said here | a branch | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on branch=Location | ||||
| 4 | tell speech: assert | gerund | mother not said here | mother | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 5 | return not said to happen | would | man | the same way | vn send-11.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Theme | ||||
| 6 | finish | past · perfect | man | hunting | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector hunting=Eventuality | ||||
| 7 | take | infinitive | man not said here | mother's home | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent home=Theme |
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/pg70959/14/21/