Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water., sentence 32

When Ogbaja returned to the mango tree after his hunting to take his mother home, he could not find her, but on looking about on the ground he saw the bloodstains where his mother’s body had been cut up, and at once knew that she must have been killed by the witches.

Who acts: Ogbaja, witches · What happens: return, take, not find, look, see, cut up · To what, where: mother, bloodstains, body · 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 (Ogbaja, 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	When	when	ADV	PronType=Int	3 returned	advmod
2	Ogbaja	Ogbaja	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 returned	nsubj
3	returned	return	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	20 find	advcl
4	to	to	ADP	_	7 tree	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 tree	det
6	mango	mango	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 tree	compound
7	tree	tree	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 returned	obl
8	after	after	ADP	_	10 hunting	case
9	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 hunting	nmod:poss
10	hunting	hunting	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 returned	obl
11	to	to	PART	_	12 take	mark
12	take	take	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 returned	advcl
13	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 mother	nmod:poss
14	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 take	obj
15	home	home	ADV	_	12 take	advmod
16	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 returned	punct
17	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	20 find	nsubj
18	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	20 find	aux
19	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	20 find	advmod
20	find	find	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
21	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	20 find	obj
22	,	,	PUNCT	_	31 saw	punct
23	but	but	CCONJ	_	31 saw	cc
24	on	on	SCONJ	_	25 looking	mark
25	looking	look	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	31 saw	advcl
26	about	about	ADV	_	25 looking	advmod
27	on	on	ADP	_	29 ground	case
28	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	29 ground	det
29	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	25 looking	obl
30	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	31 saw	nsubj
31	saw	see	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	20 find	ccomp
32	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	33 bloodstains	det
33	bloodstains	bloodstain	NOUN	Number=Plur	31 saw	obj
34	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	41 cut	advmod
35	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	36 mother	nmod:poss
36	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	38 body	nmod:poss
37	’s	's	PART	_	36 mother	case
38	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	41 cut	nsubj:pass
39	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	41 cut	aux
40	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	41 cut	aux:pass
41	cut	cut	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	33 bloodstains	acl:relcl
42	up	up	ADP	_	41 cut	compound:prt
43	,	,	PUNCT	_	47 knew	punct
44	and	and	CCONJ	_	47 knew	cc
45	at	at	ADP	_	46 once	case
46	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	47 knew	obl
47	knew	know	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	31 saw	parataxis
48	that	that	SCONJ	_	53 killed	mark
49	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	53 killed	nsubj:pass
50	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	53 killed	aux
51	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	53 killed	aux
52	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	53 killed	aux:pass
53	killed	kill	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	47 knew	ccomp
54	by	by	ADP	_	56 witches	case
55	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	56 witches	det
56	witches	witch	NOUN	Number=Plur	53 killed	obl
57	.	.	PUNCT	_	20 find	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	when	other	roles by
1	return	past	Ogbaja			after Ogbaja's hunting	to the mango tree result	vn convert-26.6.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Patient to tree=Result
2	take	to-infinitive	Ogbaja not said here		Ogbaja's mother		home property	vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument mother=Destination
3	not find	could	Ogbaja	mother				vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent she=Attribute clause=Theme
4	look	gerund	Ogbaja not said here				on the ground; about property	vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent on ground=Theme
5	see	past	Ogbaja	the bloodstains				vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer bloodstain=Stimulus
6	cut up	past · perfect · passive		Ogbaja's mother's body				vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product
7	know	past						vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
8	kill	must · perfect · passive	the witches	mother				vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme
9	hunt		Ogbaja					nom hunting «act transitive»: poss=agent

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/pg70959/14/32/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water., sentence 32

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water., sentence 32