Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxiii.--why Edidor Killed Her Husband and Her Lover., sentence 115
He was in such pain all the night that he was unable to sleep, and when the morning came, he asked one of his wives to boil some water and bring it to him.
Who acts: chief, morning · What happens: be, sleep, come, ask, boil, bring · To what, where: such pain, night, one, water, chief · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxiii.--why Edidor Killed Her Husband and Her Lover.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (chief, morning), 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 | He | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 pain | nsubj |
| 2 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 pain | cop |
| 3 | in | in | ADP | _ | 5 pain | case |
| 4 | such | such | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 pain | amod |
| 5 | pain | pain | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 6 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 8 night | det:predet |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 night | det |
| 8 | night | night | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 pain | obl:unmarked |
| 9 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 12 unable | mark |
| 10 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 12 unable | nsubj |
| 11 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 unable | cop |
| 12 | unable | unable | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 night | acl:relcl |
| 13 | to | to | PART | _ | 14 sleep | mark |
| 14 | sleep | sleep | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 12 unable | xcomp |
| 15 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 23 asked | punct |
| 16 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 23 asked | cc |
| 17 | when | when | SCONJ | _ | 20 came | mark |
| 18 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 19 morning | det |
| 19 | morning | morning | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 came | nsubj |
| 20 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 23 asked | advcl |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 came | punct |
| 22 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 23 asked | nsubj |
| 23 | asked | ask | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 pain | parataxis |
| 24 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 23 asked | obj |
| 25 | of | of | ADP | _ | 27 wives | case |
| 26 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 27 wives | nmod:poss |
| 27 | wives | wife | NOUN | Number=Plur | 24 one | nmod |
| 28 | to | to | PART | _ | 29 boil | mark |
| 29 | boil | boil | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 23 asked | ccomp |
| 30 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 31 water | det |
| 31 | water | water | NOUN | Number=Sing | 29 boil | obj |
| 32 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 33 bring | cc |
| 33 | bring | bring | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 29 boil | conj |
| 34 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 33 bring | obj |
| 35 | to | to | ADP | _ | 36 him | case |
| 36 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 33 bring | obl |
| 37 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 pain | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | chief | such pain | night | tree rules | |||
| 2 | is | past | chief | all night not said here | unable property | tree rules | |||
| 3 | sleep | to-infinitive | chief not said here | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 4 | come | past | the morning | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 5 | ask speech: ask | past | chief | one of chief's wives | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S_INF»: agent=Agent one=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 6 | boil not said to happen | to-infinitive | some water | vn cooking-45.3 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent water=Patient | |||||
| 7 | bring | infinitive | water | chief | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme to he=Destination |
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/pg70959/17/115/