Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxii.--a Story of the Great Famine., sentence 48
The alligator then scrambled up the bank to where the hare was sitting, and asked him why he had killed and eaten his children, and told the hare he should kill him.
Who acts: alligator, hare, iguana · What happens: scramble up, sit, ask, kill, eat, tell · To what, where: bank, iguana, children, hare, son · Speech: someone speaks here
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 (alligator, hare, iguana), 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 alligator | det |
| 2 | alligator | alligator | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 scrambled | nsubj |
| 3 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 4 scrambled | advmod |
| 4 | scrambled | scramble | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | up | up | ADP | _ | 4 scrambled | compound:prt |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 bank | det |
| 7 | bank | bank | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 scrambled | obj |
| 8 | to | to | SCONJ | _ | 13 sitting | mark |
| 9 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 13 sitting | advmod |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 hare | det |
| 11 | hare | hare | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 sitting | nsubj |
| 12 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 13 sitting | aux |
| 13 | sitting | sit | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 4 scrambled | advcl |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 asked | punct |
| 15 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 16 asked | cc |
| 16 | asked | ask | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 scrambled | parataxis |
| 17 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 asked | iobj |
| 18 | why | why | ADV | PronType=Int | 21 killed | advmod |
| 19 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 21 killed | nsubj:pass |
| 20 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 21 killed | aux |
| 21 | killed | kill | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 16 asked | advcl |
| 22 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 23 eaten | cc |
| 23 | eaten | eat | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 21 killed | conj |
| 24 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 25 children | nmod:poss |
| 25 | children | child | NOUN | Number=Plur | 23 eaten | obj |
| 26 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 told | punct |
| 27 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 28 told | cc |
| 28 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 16 asked | conj |
| 29 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 30 hare | det |
| 30 | hare | hare | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 told | iobj |
| 31 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 33 kill | nsubj |
| 32 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 33 kill | aux |
| 33 | kill | kill | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 28 told | ccomp |
| 34 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 33 kill | obj |
| 35 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 scrambled | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | scramble up | past | the alligator | the bank | then | vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial_Location bank=Theme | |||
| 2 | sit | past · progressive | the hare | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 3 | ask speech: ask | past | iguana | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient | |||||
| 4 | kill | past · perfect · passive | iguana | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme | |||||
| 5 | eat | participle | iguana's children | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Patient | |||||
| 6 | tell speech: assert | past | the hare | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent hare=Recipient clause=Topic | |||||
| 7 | kill | should | iguana | son | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=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/pg70959/16/48/