Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxiii.--why Edidor Killed Her Husband and Her Lover., sentence 149
Again, when I was absent, Chief Oga went to my house to sleep with my wife, but I returned and caught him lying asleep on her bed.” ’
Who acts: I, Chief · What happens: be, go, sleep, return, catch, lie · To what, where: house, bed
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 (I, Chief), 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 | Again | again | ADV | _ | 6 absent | advmod |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Again | punct |
| 3 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 6 absent | advmod |
| 4 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 6 absent | nsubj |
| 5 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 absent | cop |
| 6 | absent | absent | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 went | punct |
| 8 | Chief | Chief | PROPN | Number=Sing | 10 went | nsubj |
| 9 | Oga | Oga | PROPN | Number=Sing | 8 Chief | flat |
| 10 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 absent | parataxis |
| 11 | to | to | ADP | _ | 13 house | case |
| 12 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 13 house | nmod:poss |
| 13 | house | house | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 went | obl |
| 14 | to | to | PART | _ | 15 sleep | mark |
| 15 | sleep | sleep | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 10 went | advcl |
| 16 | with | with | ADP | _ | 18 wife | case |
| 17 | my | my | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 18 wife | nmod:poss |
| 18 | wife | wife | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 sleep | obl |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 22 returned | punct |
| 20 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 22 returned | cc |
| 21 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 22 returned | nsubj |
| 22 | returned | return | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 went | conj |
| 23 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 24 caught | cc |
| 24 | caught | catch | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 went | conj |
| 25 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 24 caught | obj |
| 26 | lying | lie | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 24 caught | xcomp |
| 27 | asleep | asleep | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 26 lying | xcomp |
| 28 | on | on | ADP | _ | 30 bed | case |
| 29 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 30 bed | nmod:poss |
| 30 | bed | bed | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 lying | obl |
| 31 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 6 absent | punct |
| 32 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 6 absent | punct |
| 33 | ’ | ' | PUNCT | _ | 6 absent | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | I | again | absent property | tree rules | |||
| 2 | go | past | Chief | my house | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to house=Initial_Location | ||||
| 3 | sleep | to-infinitive | Chief not said here | with my wife | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 4 | return | past | I | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 5 | catch | past | Chief not said here | house | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | lie | gerund | Chief not said here | thing's bed | asleep property | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on bed=Location |
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/pg70959/17/149/