Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxi.--why the Head of the Male Goat Smells So Strong., sentence 15
While he was gone, the hawk, who was hovering round, soon caught sight of the chicken, and swooped down and carried it off and eat it.
Who acts: rat, hawk, caught sight · What happens: be, hover, catch, swoop down, carry off, eat · To what, where: sight, chicken
This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxi.--why the Head of the Male Goat Smells So Strong.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (rat, hawk, caught sight), 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 | While | while | SCONJ | _ | 4 gone | mark |
| 2 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 gone | nsubj |
| 3 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 gone | cop |
| 4 | gone | gone | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 16 sight | advcl |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 hawk | punct |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 hawk | det |
| 7 | hawk | hawk | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 gone | conj |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 11 hovering | punct |
| 9 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 11 hovering | nsubj |
| 10 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 11 hovering | aux |
| 11 | hovering | hover | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 7 hawk | acl:relcl |
| 12 | round | round | ADV | _ | 11 hovering | advmod |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 gone | punct |
| 14 | soon | soon | ADV | Degree=Pos | 15 caught | advmod |
| 15 | caught | catch | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 16 sight | amod |
| 16 | sight | sight | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 swooped | nsubj |
| 17 | of | of | ADP | _ | 19 chicken | case |
| 18 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 19 chicken | det |
| 19 | chicken | chicken | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 sight | nmod |
| 20 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 22 swooped | punct |
| 21 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 22 swooped | cc |
| 22 | swooped | swoop | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 23 | down | down | ADP | _ | 22 swooped | compound:prt |
| 24 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 25 carried | cc |
| 25 | carried | carry | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 22 swooped | conj |
| 26 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 25 carried | obj |
| 27 | off | off | ADP | _ | 25 carried | compound:prt |
| 28 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 29 eat | cc |
| 29 | eat | eat | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 25 carried | conj |
| 30 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 29 eat | obj |
| 31 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 22 swooped | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | rat | the hawk conj; gone property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | hover | past · progressive | the hawk | round property | vn modes_of_being_with_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 3 | catch | participle | soon property | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 4 | swoop down | past | caught sight of the chicken | tree rules | |||||
| 5 | carry off | past | caught sight of the chicken not said here | sight | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme | ||||
| 6 | eat | infinitive | caught sight of the chicken not said here | sight | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient | ||||
| 7 | sight | the chicken | nom sight «cognition transitive»: of=patient |
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/pg70959/15/15/