Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water., sentence 3
When Ogbaja grew up, he became a hunter, and being a good shot with his bow and arrows he nearly always succeeded in bringing back some meat, which he took to his father.
Who acts: Ogbaja, meat · What happens: grow up, become, be, arrow, succeed, bring back · To what, where: hunter, good shot, meat
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 (Ogbaja, meat), 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 | When | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 3 grew | advmod |
| 2 | Ogbaja | Ogbaja | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 grew | nsubj |
| 3 | grew | grow | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 became | advcl |
| 4 | up | up | ADP | _ | 3 grew | compound:prt |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 grew | punct |
| 6 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 7 became | nsubj |
| 7 | became | become | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 8 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 9 hunter | det |
| 9 | hunter | hunter | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 became | xcomp |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 shot | punct |
| 11 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 15 shot | cc |
| 12 | being | be | AUX | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 15 shot | cop |
| 13 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 15 shot | det |
| 14 | good | good | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 15 shot | amod |
| 15 | shot | shot | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 became | xcomp |
| 16 | with | with | ADP | _ | 18 bow | case |
| 17 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 18 bow | nmod:poss |
| 18 | bow | bow | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 shot | nmod |
| 19 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 20 arrows | cc |
| 20 | arrows | arrow | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 7 became | conj |
| 21 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 24 succeeded | nsubj |
| 22 | nearly | nearly | ADV | _ | 24 succeeded | advmod |
| 23 | always | always | ADV | PronType=Tot | 24 succeeded | advmod |
| 24 | succeeded | succeed | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 20 arrows | ccomp |
| 25 | in | in | SCONJ | _ | 26 bringing | mark |
| 26 | bringing | bring | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 24 succeeded | advcl |
| 27 | back | back | ADV | _ | 26 bringing | advmod |
| 28 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 29 meat | det |
| 29 | meat | meat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 bringing | obj |
| 30 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 33 took | punct |
| 31 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 33 took | nsubj |
| 32 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 33 took | nsubj |
| 33 | took | take | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 29 meat | acl:relcl |
| 34 | to | to | ADP | _ | 36 father | case |
| 35 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 36 father | nmod:poss |
| 36 | father | father | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 took | obl |
| 37 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 7 became | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | grow up | past | Ogbaja | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 2 | become | past | Ogbaja | a hunter | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient | ||||
| 3 | is a | gerund | Ogbaja not said here | a good shot | with Ogbaja's bow | tree rules | |||
| 4 | arrow | present | Ogbaja not said here | tree rules | |||||
| 5 | succeed | participle | Ogbaja | always, nearly property | vn succeed-74-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 6 | bring back | gerund | Ogbaja not said here | some meat | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent meat=Theme | ||||
| 7 | take | past | some meat | to Ogbaja's father result; Ogbaja nsubj | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Patient to father=Result |
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.
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