Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water., sentence 4
One year the season was so dry and the sun so hot that Chief ’Njum could not plant his yams in time, and when he did plant them it was too late, and there was a very bad crop in consequence.
Who acts: One year, sun, Njum, bad crop · What happens: be, not plant, plant · To what, where: yams
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 (One year, sun, Njum, bad crop), 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 | One | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 2 year | nummod |
| 2 | year | year | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 dry | nsubj |
| 3 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 season | det |
| 4 | season | season | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 dry | nsubj |
| 5 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 dry | cop |
| 6 | so | so | ADV | _ | 7 dry | advmod |
| 7 | dry | dry | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 8 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 12 hot | cc |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 sun | det |
| 10 | sun | sun | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 hot | nsubj |
| 11 | so | so | ADV | _ | 12 hot | advmod |
| 12 | hot | hot | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 dry | conj |
| 13 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 19 plant | mark |
| 14 | Chief | Chief | PROPN | Number=Sing | 16 Njum | nmod:poss |
| 15 | ’ | 's | PART | _ | 14 Chief | case |
| 16 | Njum | Njum | PROPN | Number=Sing | 19 plant | nsubj |
| 17 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 19 plant | aux |
| 18 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 19 plant | advmod |
| 19 | plant | plant | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 12 hot | advcl |
| 20 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 21 yams | nmod:poss |
| 21 | yams | yam | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 plant | obj |
| 22 | in | in | ADP | _ | 23 time | case |
| 23 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 plant | obl |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 29 plant | punct |
| 25 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 29 plant | cc |
| 26 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 29 plant | advmod |
| 27 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 29 plant | nsubj |
| 28 | did | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 29 plant | aux |
| 29 | plant | plant | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 7 dry | parataxis |
| 30 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 29 plant | obj |
| 31 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 34 late | nsubj |
| 32 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 34 late | cop |
| 33 | too | too | ADV | _ | 34 late | advmod |
| 34 | late | late | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 29 plant | parataxis |
| 35 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 38 was | punct |
| 36 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 38 was | cc |
| 37 | there | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 38 was | expl |
| 38 | was | be | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 dry | parataxis |
| 39 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 42 crop | det |
| 40 | very | very | ADV | _ | 41 bad | advmod |
| 41 | bad | bad | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 42 crop | amod |
| 42 | crop | crop | NOUN | Number=Sing | 38 was | nsubj |
| 43 | in | in | ADP | _ | 44 consequence | case |
| 44 | consequence | consequence | NOUN | Number=Sing | 42 crop | nmod |
| 45 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 7 dry | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | One year | dry property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | be | the sun | tree rules | ||||||
| 3 | not plant | could | Chief's Njum | Njum's yams | time | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent yam=Patient | |||
| 4 | plant | past · do-support | Njum | yams = yam | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient | ||||
| 5 | is | past | sun | late property | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | be | past | a bad crop in consequence | there | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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/pg70959/14/4/