Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxii.--a Story of the Great Famine., sentence 31
That day he painted the alligators’ eldest son with long-dark stripes across his body, and when he had finished he held the young alligator up to the hole for his parents to see, and asked them if they were satisfied.
Who acts: hole, young, alligators · What happens: paint, finish, hold, alligator up, see, ask · To what, where: eldest son, body, alligators
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 (hole, young, alligators), 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 | That | that | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 2 day | det |
| 2 | day | day | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 painted | obl:unmarked |
| 3 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 painted | nsubj |
| 4 | painted | paint | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 alligators | det |
| 6 | alligators | alligator | NOUN | Number=Plur | 9 son | nmod:poss |
| 7 | ’ | 's | PART | _ | 6 alligators | case |
| 8 | eldest | eld | ADJ | Degree=Sup | 9 son | amod |
| 9 | son | son | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 painted | obj |
| 10 | with | with | ADP | _ | 14 stripes | case |
| 11 | long | long | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 13 dark | amod |
| 12 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 11 long | punct |
| 13 | dark | dark | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 14 stripes | amod |
| 14 | stripes | stripe | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 painted | obl |
| 15 | across | across | ADP | _ | 17 body | case |
| 16 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 17 body | nmod:poss |
| 17 | body | body | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 painted | obl |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 23 finished | punct |
| 19 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 23 finished | cc |
| 20 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 23 finished | advmod |
| 21 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 23 finished | nsubj |
| 22 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 23 finished | aux |
| 23 | finished | finish | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 25 held | advcl |
| 24 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 25 held | nsubj |
| 25 | held | hold | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 painted | parataxis |
| 26 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 27 young | det |
| 27 | young | young | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 28 alligator | nsubj |
| 28 | alligator | alligator | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 25 held | ccomp |
| 29 | up | up | ADP | _ | 28 alligator | compound:prt |
| 30 | to | to | ADP | _ | 32 hole | case |
| 31 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 32 hole | det |
| 32 | hole | hole | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 alligator | obl |
| 33 | for | for | ADP | _ | 35 parents | case |
| 34 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 35 parents | nmod:poss |
| 35 | parents | parent | NOUN | Number=Plur | 32 hole | nmod |
| 36 | to | to | PART | _ | 37 see | mark |
| 37 | see | see | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 35 parents | acl |
| 38 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 40 asked | punct |
| 39 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 40 asked | cc |
| 40 | asked | ask | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 painted | conj |
| 41 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 40 asked | obj |
| 42 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 45 satisfied | mark |
| 43 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 45 satisfied | nsubj |
| 44 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 45 satisfied | cop |
| 45 | satisfied | satisfied | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 40 asked | ccomp |
| 46 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 painted | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | paint | past | hole | the alligators's eldest son | hole's body | day | with dark stripes | vn image_impression-25.1 «NP V NP.destination PP.theme»: agent=Agent son=Destination with stripe=Theme | |
| 2 | finish | past · perfect | hole | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality | |||||
| 3 | hold | past | hole | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | |||||
| 4 | alligator up | present | the young | to the hole for hole's parents | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | see | to-infinitive | the young not said here | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | |||||
| 6 | ask speech: ask | past | hole not said here | alligators = alligator | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent they=Recipient | ||||
| 7 | is a condition, not said to happen | past | alligators = alligator | satisfied 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/pg70959/16/31/