Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 1, sentence 26
He went to the head chief, who was an old man, and told him that he was Abang from Bendega, and that he was going round the country to visit the people.
Who acts: Oga, head chief · What happens: go, be, tell, visit · To what, where: head chief, old man, Oga, Abang, Bendega, country · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Oga, head 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 | He | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 went | nsubj |
| 2 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | to | to | ADP | _ | 6 chief | case |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 chief | det |
| 5 | head | head | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 chief | compound |
| 6 | chief | chief | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 went | obl |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 man | punct |
| 8 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 12 man | nsubj |
| 9 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 man | cop |
| 10 | an | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 12 man | det |
| 11 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 12 man | amod |
| 12 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 chief | conj |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 told | punct |
| 14 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 15 told | cc |
| 15 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 went | parataxis |
| 16 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 15 told | iobj |
| 17 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 20 Abang | mark |
| 18 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 20 Abang | nsubj |
| 19 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 20 Abang | cop |
| 20 | Abang | Abang | PROPN | Number=Sing | 15 told | conj |
| 21 | from | from | ADP | _ | 22 Bendega | case |
| 22 | Bendega | Bendega | PROPN | Number=Sing | 20 Abang | nmod |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 going | punct |
| 24 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 28 going | cc |
| 25 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 28 going | mark |
| 26 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 28 going | nsubj |
| 27 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 28 going | aux |
| 28 | going | go | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 2 went | advcl |
| 29 | round | round | ADP | _ | 31 country | case |
| 30 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 31 country | det |
| 31 | country | country | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 going | obl |
| 32 | to | to | PART | _ | 33 visit | mark |
| 33 | visit | visit | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 28 going | advcl |
| 34 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 35 people | det |
| 35 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 33 visit | obj |
| 36 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 went | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | go | past | Oga | the head chief and a old man | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to chief=Initial_Location | ||||
| 2 | is a | past | the head chief and a old man | a old man | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | tell speech: assert | past | Oga | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient | |||||
| 4 | is a | past | Oga | Abang | Bendega | tree rules | |||
| 5 | go | past · progressive | Oga | the country | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme round country=Initial_Location | ||||
| 6 | visit | to-infinitive | Oga not said here | the people | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent people=Co-Agent |
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/pg70959/18/26/