Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxiii.--why Edidor Killed Her Husband and Her Lover., sentence 94
’Nyambi thought the plan a good one, so he put some camwood into his canoe and told the people that he was going down river to trade, and did not expect to return for some few days.
Who acts: Nyambi · What happens: think, put, tell, go down, trade, not expect · To what, where: plan, camwood, canoe, people, river · 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), 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 | ’ | ' | PUNCT | _ | 3 thought | punct |
| 2 | Nyambi | Nyambi | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 thought | nsubj |
| 3 | thought | think | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 plan | det |
| 5 | plan | plan | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 thought | obj |
| 6 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 8 one | det |
| 7 | good | good | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 one | amod |
| 8 | one | one | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 plan | appos |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 put | punct |
| 10 | so | so | ADV | _ | 12 put | advmod |
| 11 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 12 put | nsubj |
| 12 | put | put | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 thought | conj |
| 13 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 14 camwood | det |
| 14 | camwood | camwood | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 put | obj |
| 15 | into | into | ADP | _ | 17 canoe | case |
| 16 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 17 canoe | nmod:poss |
| 17 | canoe | canoe | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 put | obl |
| 18 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 19 told | cc |
| 19 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 thought | conj |
| 20 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 21 people | det |
| 21 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 told | iobj |
| 22 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 25 going | mark |
| 23 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 25 going | nsubj |
| 24 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 25 going | aux |
| 25 | going | go | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 19 told | ccomp |
| 26 | down | down | ADP | _ | 25 going | compound:prt |
| 27 | river | river | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 going | obj |
| 28 | to | to | PART | _ | 29 trade | mark |
| 29 | trade | trade | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 25 going | xcomp |
| 30 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 34 expect | punct |
| 31 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 34 expect | cc |
| 32 | did | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 34 expect | aux |
| 33 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 34 expect | advmod |
| 34 | expect | expect | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | 19 told | parataxis |
| 35 | to | to | PART | _ | 36 return | mark |
| 36 | return | return | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 34 expect | xcomp |
| 37 | for | for | ADP | _ | 40 days | case |
| 38 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 40 days | det |
| 39 | few | few | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 40 days | amod |
| 40 | days | day | NOUN | Number=Plur | 36 return | obl |
| 41 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 thought | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | think speech: other | past | Nyambi | the plan | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot plan=Theme | ||||
| 2 | put | past | NYAMBI | some camwood | NYAMBI's canoe | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent camwood=Goal | |||
| 3 | tell speech: assert | past | Nyambi not said here | the people | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent people=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 4 | go down | past · progressive | NYAMBI | river | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | trade | to-infinitive | NYAMBI not said here | vn exchange-13.6.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 6 | not expect | past · do-support | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme | ||||||
| 7 | return not said to happen | to-infinitive | day | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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/pg70959/17/94/