Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxii.--a Story of the Great Famine., sentence 1

In the days of the great famine, when all men and animals on the land were starving, the alligators and the fish in the river had plenty to eat, and the parrots and bats were also well off for food.

Who acts: men, days, parrots · What happens: starve, have, eat, be · To what, where: plenty

This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxii.--a Story of the Great Famine.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (men, days, parrots), 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	In	in	ADP	_	3 days	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 days	det
3	days	day	NOUN	Number=Plur	28 had	nsubj
4	of	of	ADP	_	7 famine	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 famine	det
6	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 famine	amod
7	famine	famine	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 days	nmod
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 starving	punct
9	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	18 starving	advmod
10	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	11 men	det
11	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	18 starving	nsubj
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 animals	cc
13	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 men	conj
14	on	on	ADP	_	16 land	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 land	det
16	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 men	nmod
17	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	18 starving	aux
18	starving	starve	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	7 famine	conj
19	,	,	PUNCT	_	21 alligators	punct
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 alligators	det
21	alligators	alligator	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 famine	conj
22	and	and	CCONJ	_	24 fish	cc
23	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	24 fish	det
24	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 famine	conj
25	in	in	ADP	_	27 river	case
26	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	27 river	det
27	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	24 fish	nmod
28	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
29	plenty	plenty	NOUN	Number=Sing	28 had	obj
30	to	to	PART	_	31 eat	mark
31	eat	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	29 plenty	acl
32	,	,	PUNCT	_	41 off	punct
33	and	and	CCONJ	_	41 off	cc
34	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	35 parrots	det
35	parrots	parrot	NOUN	Number=Plur	41 off	nsubj
36	and	and	CCONJ	_	37 bats	cc
37	bats	bat	NOUN	Number=Plur	35 parrots	conj
38	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	41 off	cop
39	also	also	ADV	_	41 off	advmod
40	well	well	ADV	Degree=Pos	41 off	advmod
41	off	off	ADV	_	28 had	parataxis
42	for	for	ADP	_	43 food	case
43	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	41 off	obl
44	.	.	PUNCT	_	28 had	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	starve	past · progressive	all men on the land and animals			tree rules
2	have	past	the days of the great famine and the alligators and the fish in the river	plenty		vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent plenty=Patient
3	eat	to-infinitive	the days of the great famine and the alligators and the fish in the river not said here	plenty not said here		vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	is	past	the parrots and bats		for food; off, well 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/pg70959/16/1/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxii.--a Story of the Great Famine., sentence 1

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxii.--a Story of the Great Famine., sentence 1