Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxiii.--why Edidor Killed Her Husband and Her Lover., sentence 150
Nyambi then asked the question, “What do you do when you catch a thief in your stack of yams?”
Who acts: Nyambi, you · What happens: ask, do, catch · To what, where: question, thief, stack · 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 (Nyambi, you), 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 | Nyambi | Nyambi | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 asked | nsubj |
| 2 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 3 asked | advmod |
| 3 | asked | ask | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 question | det |
| 5 | question | question | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 asked | obj |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 11 do | punct |
| 7 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 11 do | punct |
| 8 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 11 do | obj |
| 9 | do | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 11 do | aux |
| 10 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 11 do | nsubj |
| 11 | do | do | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 asked | ccomp |
| 12 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 14 catch | advmod |
| 13 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 14 catch | nsubj |
| 14 | catch | catch | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 11 do | advcl |
| 15 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 16 thief | det |
| 16 | thief | thief | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 catch | obj |
| 17 | in | in | ADP | _ | 19 stack | case |
| 18 | your | your | PRON | Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 19 stack | nmod:poss |
| 19 | stack | stack | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 catch | obl |
| 20 | of | of | ADP | _ | 21 yams | case |
| 21 | yams | yam | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 stack | nmod |
| 22 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 11 do | punct |
| 23 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 11 do | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ask speech: ask | past | Nyambi | the question | then | vn urge-58.1-1-1 «NP V NP that S»: agent=Agent question=Recipient clause=Topic | |||
| 2 | do in a quote | present · do-support | you | What obj | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality | ||||
| 3 | catch in a quote | present | you | a thief | your stack of yams | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thief=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/pg70959/17/150/