Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxii.--a Story of the Great Famine., sentence 20

But before the hare started he threw some small bits of dried stick into the river and watched the fish come up and look at them.

Who acts: hare, friend, fish · What happens: start, throw, dry, watch, come up, look · To what, where: small bits, river

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 (hare, friend, fish), 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	But	but	CCONJ	_	7 threw	cc
2	before	before	SCONJ	_	5 started	mark
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 hare	det
4	hare	hare	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 started	nsubj
5	started	start	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 threw	advcl
6	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 threw	nsubj
7	threw	throw	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	10 bits	det
9	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 bits	amod
10	bits	bit	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 threw	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 stick	case
12	dried	dry	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	13 stick	amod
13	stick	stick	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 bits	nmod
14	into	into	ADP	_	16 river	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 river	det
16	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 threw	obl
17	and	and	CCONJ	_	18 watched	cc
18	watched	watch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 threw	conj
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 fish	det
20	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Plur	21 come	nsubj
21	come	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	18 watched	ccomp
22	up	up	ADV	_	21 come	advmod
23	and	and	CCONJ	_	24 look	cc
24	look	look	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	21 come	conj
25	at	at	ADP	_	26 them	case
26	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	24 look	obl
27	.	.	PUNCT	_	7 threw	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	start	past	the hare			vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality
2	throw	past	friend	some small bits of dried stick	into the river result	vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Causer bit=Theme into river=Result
3	dry	participle				vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
4	watch	past	friend not said here			tree rules
5	come up	present	the fish			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
6	look	infinitive	the fish not said here		at bits = bit	vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at they=Theme

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/pg70959/16/20/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxii.--a Story of the Great Famine., sentence 20

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxii.--a Story of the Great Famine., sentence 20