Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxi.--why the Head of the Male Goat Smells So Strong., sentence 48
By this time the corpse had become quite putrid, and as the goat’s horns tore the body his head was covered with bad-smelling blood.
Who acts: corpse, horns · What happens: become, tore, cover, smell · To what, where: body, head, blood
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 (corpse, horns), 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 | By | by | ADP | _ | 3 time | case |
| 2 | this | this | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 3 time | det |
| 3 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 become | obl |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 corpse | det |
| 5 | corpse | corpse | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 become | nsubj |
| 6 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 become | aux |
| 7 | become | become | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 8 | quite | quite | ADV | _ | 9 putrid | advmod |
| 9 | putrid | putrid | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 become | xcomp |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 tore | punct |
| 11 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 tore | cc |
| 12 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 17 tore | mark |
| 13 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 14 goat | det |
| 14 | goat | goat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 horns | nmod:poss |
| 15 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 14 goat | case |
| 16 | horns | horn | NOUN | Number=Plur | 17 tore | nsubj |
| 17 | tore | tore | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 become | parataxis |
| 18 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 19 body | det |
| 19 | body | body | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 tore | obj |
| 20 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 21 head | nmod:poss |
| 21 | head | head | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 covered | nsubj:pass |
| 22 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 23 covered | aux:pass |
| 23 | covered | cover | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 17 tore | parataxis |
| 24 | with | with | SCONJ | _ | 27 smelling | mark |
| 25 | bad | bad | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 27 smelling | amod |
| 26 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 25 bad | punct |
| 27 | smelling | smell | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 23 covered | advcl |
| 28 | blood | blood | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 smelling | obj |
| 29 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 7 become | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | become | past · perfect | the corpse | time | putrid property | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient | |||
| 2 | tore | past | the goat's horns | the body | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | cover | past · passive | farmer's head | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Destination | |||||
| 4 | smell | gerund | blood | vn see-30.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer blood=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/pg70959/15/48/