Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water., sentence 74
Messages could also be sent to anyone who understood the beat of the drum.
Who acts: anyone · What happens: send, understand · To what, where: Messages, beat
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 (anyone), 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 | Messages | message | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 sent | nsubj:pass |
| 2 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 5 sent | aux |
| 3 | also | also | ADV | _ | 5 sent | advmod |
| 4 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 5 sent | aux:pass |
| 5 | sent | send | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 6 | to | to | ADP | _ | 7 anyone | case |
| 7 | anyone | anyone | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Ind | 5 sent | obl:agent |
| 8 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 9 understood | nsubj |
| 9 | understood | understand | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 anyone | acl:relcl |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 beat | det |
| 11 | beat | beat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 understood | obj |
| 12 | of | of | ADP | _ | 14 drum | case |
| 13 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 14 drum | det |
| 14 | drum | drum | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 beat | nmod |
| 15 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 sent | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | send | could · passive | anyone | Messages | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme | ||||
| 2 | understand | past | the beat of the drum | who nsubj | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer beat=Stimulus |
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/pg70959/14/74/