Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water., sentence 5
When the food began to get scarce, Chief ’Njum told his son to go hunting every day to supply meat for everybody.
Who acts: food, Njum · What happens: begin, get, tell, go, hunt, supply · To what, where: son, meat · 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 (food, Njum), 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 | 4 began | advmod |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 food | det |
| 3 | food | food | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 began | nsubj |
| 4 | began | begin | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 told | advcl |
| 5 | to | to | PART | _ | 6 get | mark |
| 6 | get | get | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 began | xcomp |
| 7 | scarce | scarce | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 get | xcomp |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 began | punct |
| 9 | Chief | Chief | PROPN | Number=Sing | 11 Njum | nmod:poss |
| 10 | ’ | 's | PART | _ | 9 Chief | case |
| 11 | Njum | Njum | PROPN | Number=Sing | 12 told | nsubj |
| 12 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 13 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 14 son | nmod:poss |
| 14 | son | son | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 told | iobj |
| 15 | to | to | PART | _ | 16 go | mark |
| 16 | go | go | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 12 told | xcomp |
| 17 | hunting | hunt | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 16 go | xcomp |
| 18 | every | every | DET | PronType=Tot | 19 day | det |
| 19 | day | day | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 hunting | obl:unmarked |
| 20 | to | to | PART | _ | 21 supply | mark |
| 21 | supply | supply | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 17 hunting | advcl |
| 22 | meat | meat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 supply | obj |
| 23 | for | for | ADP | _ | 24 everybody | case |
| 24 | everybody | everybody | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Tot | 21 supply | obl |
| 25 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 12 told | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | begin | past | the food | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 2 | get | to-infinitive | the food not said here | scarce property | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer | ||||
| 3 | tell speech: assert | past | Chief's Njum | Njum's son | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent son=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 4 | go not said to happen | to-infinitive | Chief's Njum not said here | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 5 | hunt | gerund | Chief's Njum not said here | day | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 6 | supply | to-infinitive | Chief's Njum not said here | meat | for everybody | vn fulfilling-13.4.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent meat=Theme for everybody=Recipient |
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/pg70959/14/5/