Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water., sentence 41
At last he told Chief ’Njum not to do anything for two months, as, by that time, the witches would think they were quite safe.
Who acts: Chief, witches · What happens: tell, not do, think, be · To what, where: Njum, last, anything · 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, 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 | At | at | ADP | _ | 2 last | case |
| 2 | last | last | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 told | obl |
| 3 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 told | nsubj |
| 4 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | Chief | Chief | PROPN | Number=Sing | 7 Njum | nmod:poss |
| 6 | ’ | 's | PART | _ | 5 Chief | case |
| 7 | Njum | Njum | PROPN | Number=Sing | 4 told | iobj |
| 8 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 10 do | advmod |
| 9 | to | to | PART | _ | 10 do | mark |
| 10 | do | do | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 told | xcomp |
| 11 | anything | anything | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Ind | 10 do | obj |
| 12 | for | for | ADP | _ | 14 months | case |
| 13 | two | two | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 14 months | nummod |
| 14 | months | month | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 do | obl |
| 15 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 time | punct |
| 16 | as | as | ADP | ExtPos=ADP | 20 time | case |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 as | punct |
| 18 | by | by | ADP | _ | 16 as | fixed |
| 19 | that | that | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 20 time | det |
| 20 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 do | obl:unmarked |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 25 think | punct |
| 22 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 witches | det |
| 23 | witches | witch | NOUN | Number=Plur | 25 think | nsubj |
| 24 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 25 think | aux |
| 25 | think | think | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 told | conj |
| 26 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 29 safe | nsubj |
| 27 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 29 safe | cop |
| 28 | quite | quite | ADV | _ | 29 safe | advmod |
| 29 | safe | safe | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 25 think | ccomp |
| 30 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 told | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | tell speech: assert | past | Chief | Chief's Njum | last | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent njum=Recipient clause=Topic | |||
| 2 | not do not said to happen | to-infinitive | Chief not said here | anything | month; time | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Eventuality | |||
| 3 | think speech: other | would | the witches | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 4 | is | past | witches = witch | safe property | tree rules |
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/pg70959/14/41/