Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxii.--a Story of the Great Famine., sentence 61

Ever since that time the parrots have made their nests on high trees on islands, and when they are flying high up in the air you can hear them laughing at the hare, saying, “We are out of your reach, you cannot harm us now.”

Who acts: parrots, you, We · What happens: make, fly, hear, laugh, say, be · To what, where: parrots, high trees, air, reach, us · 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 (parrots, you, We), 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	Ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	2 since	advmod
2	since	since	ADP	_	4 time	case
3	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	4 time	det
4	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 made	obl
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 parrots	det
6	parrots	parrot	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 made	nsubj:pass
7	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 made	aux
8	made	make	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
9	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 nests	nmod:poss
10	nests	nest	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 made	obj
11	on	on	ADP	_	13 trees	case
12	high	high	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 trees	amod
13	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 made	obl
14	on	on	ADP	_	15 islands	case
15	islands	island	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 trees	nmod
16	,	,	PUNCT	_	29 hear	punct
17	and	and	CCONJ	_	29 hear	cc
18	when	when	SCONJ	_	21 flying	mark
19	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	21 flying	nsubj
20	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	21 flying	aux
21	flying	fly	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	29 hear	advcl
22	high	high	ADV	Degree=Pos	23 up	advmod
23	up	up	ADV	_	21 flying	advmod
24	in	in	ADP	_	26 air	case
25	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	26 air	det
26	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	29 hear	obl
27	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	29 hear	nsubj
28	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	29 hear	aux
29	hear	hear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 made	parataxis
30	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	29 hear	obj
31	laughing	laugh	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	29 hear	xcomp
32	at	at	ADP	_	34 hare	case
33	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	34 hare	det
34	hare	hare	NOUN	Number=Sing	31 laughing	obl
35	,	,	PUNCT	_	36 saying	punct
36	saying	say	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	31 laughing	advcl
37	,	,	PUNCT	_	44 reach	punct
38	“	"	PUNCT	_	44 reach	punct
39	We	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	44 reach	nsubj
40	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	44 reach	cop
41	out	out	ADP	_	44 reach	case
42	of	of	ADP	_	44 reach	case
43	your	your	PRON	Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	44 reach	nmod:poss
44	reach	reach	NOUN	Number=Sing	36 saying	ccomp
45	,	,	PUNCT	_	49 harm	punct
46	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	49 harm	nsubj
47	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	49 harm	aux
48	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	49 harm	advmod
49	harm	harm	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	29 hear	conj
50	us	we	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	49 harm	obj
51	now	now	ADV	PronType=Dem	49 harm	advmod
52	.	.	PUNCT	_	8 made	punct
53	”	"	PUNCT	_	8 made	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	present · perfect · passive		the parrots	high trees on islands	time	parrots's nests obj	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP NP»: subject=Beneficiary nest=Product
2	fly	present · progressive	parrots = parrot					vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	hear	can	you	parrots = parrot	the air			tree rules
4	laugh	gerund	parrots = parrot not said here				at the hare	vn nonverbal_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent
5	say speech: assert	gerund	parrots = parrot not said here					vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
6	is in a quote	present	We		your reach		your nmod:poss	tree rules
7	not harm in a quote	can	you	us		now		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus we=Experiencer

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/pg70959/16/61/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxii.--a Story of the Great Famine., sentence 61

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxii.--a Story of the Great Famine., sentence 61