Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water., sentence 40
Then Chief Agborleku sat for a long time without speaking, considering what was the best way to get rid of these wicked men.
Who acts: Chief, best way · What happens: sit, speak, consider, be, get · 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 (Chief, best way), 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 | Then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 4 sat | advmod |
| 2 | Chief | Chief | PROPN | Number=Sing | 4 sat | nsubj |
| 3 | Agborleku | Agborleku | PROPN | Number=Sing | 2 Chief | flat |
| 4 | sat | sit | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | for | for | ADP | _ | 8 time | case |
| 6 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 8 time | det |
| 7 | long | long | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 time | amod |
| 8 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 sat | obl |
| 9 | without | without | SCONJ | _ | 10 speaking | mark |
| 10 | speaking | speak | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 4 sat | advcl |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 considering | punct |
| 12 | considering | consider | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 10 speaking | conj |
| 13 | what | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 12 considering | obj |
| 14 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 13 what | cop |
| 15 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 way | det |
| 16 | best | good | ADJ | Degree=Sup | 17 way | amod |
| 17 | way | way | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 what | nsubj |
| 18 | to | to | PART | _ | 19 get | mark |
| 19 | get | get | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 17 way | acl |
| 20 | rid | rid | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 19 get | xcomp |
| 21 | of | of | ADP | _ | 24 men | case |
| 22 | these | this | DET | Number=Plur PronType=Dem | 24 men | det |
| 23 | wicked | wicked | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 24 men | amod |
| 24 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 20 rid | obl |
| 25 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 sat | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | sit | past | Chief | then; time | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 2 | speak speech: other | gerund | Chief not said here | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 3 | consider | gerund | Chief not said here | vn consider-29.9-1-1 «NP V whether/if S»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 4 | is a | past | the best way | tree rules | |||||
| 5 | get | to-infinitive | the best way not said here | rid property | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
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/pg70959/14/40/