Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxi.--why the Head of the Male Goat Smells So Strong., sentence 16
A sheep, who had been watching, told the goat, when he returned, what had happened to the chicken, so the next morning the goat went to the hawk and demanded payment.
Who acts: sheep, goat · What happens: watch, tell, return, happen, go, demand · To what, where: goat, payment · Speech: someone speaks here
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 (sheep, goat), 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 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 sheep | det |
| 2 | sheep | sheep | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 told | nsubj |
| 3 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 watching | punct |
| 4 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 7 watching | nsubj |
| 5 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 watching | aux |
| 6 | been | be | AUX | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 7 watching | aux |
| 7 | watching | watch | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 2 sheep | conj |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 2 sheep | punct |
| 9 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 goat | det |
| 11 | goat | goat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 told | iobj |
| 12 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 returned | punct |
| 13 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 15 returned | advmod |
| 14 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 15 returned | nsubj |
| 15 | returned | return | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 told | conj |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 happened | punct |
| 17 | what | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 19 happened | nsubj |
| 18 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 19 happened | aux |
| 19 | happened | happen | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 15 returned | ccomp |
| 20 | to | to | ADP | _ | 22 chicken | case |
| 21 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 22 chicken | det |
| 22 | chicken | chicken | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 happened | obl |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 30 went | punct |
| 24 | so | so | ADV | _ | 30 went | advmod |
| 25 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 27 morning | det |
| 26 | next | next | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 27 morning | amod |
| 27 | morning | morning | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 went | obl:unmarked |
| 28 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 29 goat | det |
| 29 | goat | goat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 went | nsubj |
| 30 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 told | parataxis |
| 31 | to | to | ADP | _ | 33 hawk | case |
| 32 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 33 hawk | det |
| 33 | hawk | hawk | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 went | obl |
| 34 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 35 demanded | cc |
| 35 | demanded | demand | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 30 went | conj |
| 36 | payment | payment | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 demanded | obj |
| 37 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 9 told | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | watch | past · perfect · progressive | a sheep | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 2 | tell speech: assert | past | a sheep | the goat | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent goat=Recipient | ||||
| 3 | return | past | sheep | tree rules | |||||
| 4 | happen | past · perfect | to the chicken; what nsubj | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 5 | go | past | the goat | morning | to the hawk | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to hawk=Initial_Location | |||
| 6 | demand speech: request | past | the goat not said here | payment | vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme payment=Precondition |
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/pg70959/15/16/