Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxi.--why the Head of the Male Goat Smells So Strong., sentence 26
The goat told the people that in the country he came from they always planted the proper yams, and the koko yams were only used in the hungry season when food was scarce.
Who acts: goat, people, food · What happens: tell, come, plant, use, be · To what, where: people, country, proper yams, koko yams · 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 (goat, people, food), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 goat | det |
| 2 | goat | goat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 told | nsubj |
| 3 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 people | det |
| 5 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 told | iobj |
| 6 | that | that | PRON | PronType=Rel | 11 came | nsubj |
| 7 | in | in | ADP | _ | 9 country | case |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 9 country | det |
| 9 | country | country | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 came | obl |
| 10 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 came | nsubj |
| 11 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 people | acl:relcl |
| 12 | from | from | SCONJ | _ | 15 planted | mark |
| 13 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 15 planted | nsubj |
| 14 | always | always | ADV | PronType=Tot | 15 planted | advmod |
| 15 | planted | plant | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 11 came | advcl |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 18 yams | det |
| 17 | proper | proper | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 18 yams | amod |
| 18 | yams | yam | NOUN | Number=Plur | 15 planted | obj |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 used | punct |
| 20 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 26 used | cc |
| 21 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 yams | det |
| 22 | koko | koko | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 yams | compound |
| 23 | yams | yam | NOUN | Number=Plur | 26 used | nsubj:pass |
| 24 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 26 used | aux:pass |
| 25 | only | only | ADV | _ | 26 used | advmod |
| 26 | used | use | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 3 told | conj |
| 27 | in | in | ADP | _ | 30 season | case |
| 28 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 30 season | det |
| 29 | hungry | hungry | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 30 season | amod |
| 30 | season | season | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 used | obl |
| 31 | when | when | SCONJ | _ | 34 scarce | mark |
| 32 | food | food | NOUN | Number=Sing | 34 scarce | nsubj |
| 33 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 34 scarce | cop |
| 34 | scarce | scarce | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 26 used | advcl |
| 35 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 told | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | tell speech: assert | past | the goat | the people | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent people=Recipient | ||||
| 2 | come | past | the people | the country | play nsubj | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in country=Location | |||
| 3 | plant | past | people | the proper yams | always property | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent yam=Patient | |||
| 4 | use | past · passive | the koko yams | season | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient | ||||
| 5 | is | past | food | scarce 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/pg70959/15/26/