Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxiii.--why Edidor Killed Her Husband and Her Lover., sentence 138
When they had heard the whole story, the members of ’Nyambi’s company agreed to back him up, and as they were the principal fighting-men of the town they went to the palaver house without much fear.
Who acts: men, company · What happens: hear, agree, back up, be, go · To what, where: whole story, company, town
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 (men, company), 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 | When | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 4 heard | advmod |
| 2 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 heard | nsubj |
| 3 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 heard | aux |
| 4 | heard | hear | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 story | det |
| 6 | whole | whole | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 story | amod |
| 7 | story | story | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 heard | obj |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 members | punct |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 members | det |
| 10 | members | member | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 heard | parataxis |
| 11 | of | of | SCONJ | _ | 16 agreed | mark |
| 12 | ’ | ' | PUNCT | _ | 16 agreed | punct |
| 13 | Nyambi | Nyambi | PROPN | Number=Sing | 15 company | nmod:poss |
| 14 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 13 Nyambi | case |
| 15 | company | company | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 agreed | nsubj |
| 16 | agreed | agree | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 members | advcl |
| 17 | to | to | PART | _ | 18 back | mark |
| 18 | back | back | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 16 agreed | xcomp |
| 19 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 18 back | obj |
| 20 | up | up | ADP | _ | 18 back | compound:prt |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 30 men | punct |
| 22 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 30 men | cc |
| 23 | as | as | ADP | _ | 30 men | case |
| 24 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 30 men | nsubj |
| 25 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 30 men | cop |
| 26 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 30 men | det |
| 27 | principal | principal | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 30 men | amod |
| 28 | fighting | fighting | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 men | compound |
| 29 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 28 fighting | punct |
| 30 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 heard | obl |
| 31 | of | of | ADP | _ | 33 town | case |
| 32 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 33 town | det |
| 33 | town | town | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 men | nmod |
| 34 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 35 went | nsubj |
| 35 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 33 town | acl:relcl |
| 36 | to | to | ADP | _ | 39 house | case |
| 37 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 39 house | det |
| 38 | palaver | palaver | NOUN | Number=Sing | 39 house | compound |
| 39 | house | house | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 went | obl |
| 40 | without | without | ADP | _ | 42 fear | case |
| 41 | much | much | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 42 fear | amod |
| 42 | fear | fear | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 went | obl |
| 43 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 heard | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | hear | past · perfect | men = man | the whole story | the members parataxis | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer story=Stimulus | |||
| 2 | agree speech: agree | past | Nyambi's company | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 3 | back up not said to happen | to-infinitive | Nyambi's company not said here | company | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Agent | ||||
| 4 | is | past | men = man | as the principal fighting men; of the town | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | go | past | men = man | the town not said here | to the palaver house; without much fear | vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location town=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/pg70959/17/138/