Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water., sentence 25
Nara was very frightened when she saw the witches, and kept quite quiet, but when she saw them go down to the stream she thought they had all gone, so she moved about in the branches and looked all round.
Who acts: Nara, witches · What happens: be, see, keep, go down, think, have · To what, where: witches, stream, branches · 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 (Nara, witches), 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 | Nara | Nara | PROPN | Number=Sing | 7 saw | nsubj |
| 2 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 frightened | cop |
| 3 | very | very | ADV | _ | 4 frightened | advmod |
| 4 | frightened | frightened | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 1 Nara | appos |
| 5 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 7 saw | advmod |
| 6 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 7 saw | nsubj |
| 7 | saw | see | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 9 witches | det |
| 9 | witches | witch | NOUN | Number=Plur | 7 saw | obj |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 kept | punct |
| 11 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 12 kept | cc |
| 12 | kept | keep | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 saw | conj |
| 13 | quite | quite | ADV | _ | 14 quiet | advmod |
| 14 | quiet | quiet | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 12 kept | xcomp |
| 15 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 saw | punct |
| 16 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 19 saw | cc |
| 17 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 19 saw | advmod |
| 18 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 saw | nsubj |
| 19 | saw | see | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 saw | conj |
| 20 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 saw | obj |
| 21 | go | go | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 19 saw | xcomp |
| 22 | down | down | ADV | _ | 21 go | advmod |
| 23 | to | to | ADP | _ | 25 stream | case |
| 24 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 25 stream | det |
| 25 | stream | stream | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 go | obl |
| 26 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 27 thought | nsubj |
| 27 | thought | think | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 25 stream | acl:relcl |
| 28 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 29 had | nsubj |
| 29 | had | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 27 thought | ccomp |
| 30 | all | all | ADV | _ | 31 gone | advmod |
| 31 | gone | gone | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 29 had | xcomp |
| 32 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 35 moved | punct |
| 33 | so | so | ADV | _ | 35 moved | advmod |
| 34 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 35 moved | nsubj |
| 35 | moved | move | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 saw | parataxis |
| 36 | about | about | ADV | _ | 35 moved | advmod |
| 37 | in | in | ADP | _ | 39 branches | case |
| 38 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 39 branches | det |
| 39 | branches | branch | NOUN | Number=Plur | 35 moved | obl |
| 40 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 41 looked | cc |
| 41 | looked | look | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 35 moved | conj |
| 42 | all | all | ADV | _ | 43 round | advmod |
| 43 | round | round | ADV | _ | 41 looked | advmod |
| 44 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 7 saw | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | frightened property | tree rules | |||||
| 2 | see | past | Nara | the witches | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer witch=Stimulus | ||||
| 3 | keep | past | Nara not said here | quiet property | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 4 | see | past | Nara | witches = witch | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | go down | infinitive | witches = witch not said here | to the stream; down property | vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute | ||||
| 6 | think speech: other | past | Nara | the stream not said here | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent stream=Attribute clause=Theme | ||||
| 7 | have | past | witches = witch | gone property | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 8 | move about | past | Nara | the branches | about property | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme in branch=Trajectory | |||
| 9 | look | past | Nara not said here | round property | vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
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/pg70959/14/25/