Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxii.--a Story of the Great Famine., sentence 49

The hare acknowledged that he had done wrong, but asked the alligator not to kill him at once, as his body was so small it would not be worth eating.

Who acts: hare, iguana, body · What happens: acknowledge, do, ask, not kill, be, not be · To what, where: alligator, iguana · 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 (hare, iguana, body), 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 hare	det
2	hare	hare	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 acknowledged	nsubj
3	acknowledged	acknowledge	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	that	that	SCONJ	_	7 done	mark
5	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 done	nsubj
6	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 done	aux
7	done	do	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	3 acknowledged	ccomp
8	wrong	wrong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 done	xcomp
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 asked	punct
10	but	but	CCONJ	_	11 asked	cc
11	asked	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 acknowledged	conj
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 alligator	det
13	alligator	alligator	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 asked	obj
14	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	16 kill	advmod
15	to	to	PART	_	16 kill	mark
16	kill	kill	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 asked	ccomp
17	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 kill	obj
18	at	at	ADP	_	19 once	case
19	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	16 kill	obl
20	,	,	PUNCT	_	26 small	punct
21	as	as	SCONJ	_	26 small	mark
22	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	23 body	nmod:poss
23	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 small	nsubj
24	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	26 small	cop
25	so	so	ADV	_	26 small	advmod
26	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 asked	parataxis
27	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	31 worth	nsubj
28	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	31 worth	aux
29	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	31 worth	advmod
30	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	31 worth	cop
31	worth	worth	ADJ	Degree=Pos	26 small	parataxis
32	eating	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	31 worth	xcomp
33	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 acknowledged	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	acknowledge	past	the hare				vn confess-37.10 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	do	past · perfect	iguana			wrong property	vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	ask speech: ask	past	the hare not said here		the alligator		vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S_INF»: agent=Agent alligator=Recipient clause=Topic
4	not kill not said to happen	to-infinitive		iguana			vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme
5	is	past	iguana's body			small property	tree rules
6	not is	would	body			worth property	tree rules
7	eat	gerund	body not said here				vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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/pg70959/16/49/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxii.--a Story of the Great Famine., sentence 49

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxii.--a Story of the Great Famine., sentence 49