Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 1, sentence 44
And now whenever people are asked to change their skins they always refuse, but sometimes they will lend their best cloth to a friend.
Who acts: people · What happens: ask, change, refuse, lend · To what, where: people, skins, best cloth, friend
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 (people), 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 | And | and | CCONJ | _ | 3 whenever | cc |
| 2 | now | now | ADV | PronType=Dem | 3 whenever | advmod |
| 3 | whenever | whenever | ADV | PronType=Rel | root | root |
| 4 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 6 asked | nsubj:pass |
| 5 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 6 asked | aux:pass |
| 6 | asked | ask | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 3 whenever | advcl:relcl |
| 7 | to | to | PART | _ | 8 change | mark |
| 8 | change | change | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 6 asked | xcomp |
| 9 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 10 skins | nmod:poss |
| 10 | skins | skin | NOUN | Number=Plur | 8 change | obj |
| 11 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 13 refuse | nsubj |
| 12 | always | always | ADV | PronType=Tot | 13 refuse | advmod |
| 13 | refuse | refuse | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 10 skins | acl:relcl |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 lend | punct |
| 15 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 19 lend | cc |
| 16 | sometimes | sometimes | ADV | PronType=Ind | 19 lend | advmod |
| 17 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 lend | nsubj |
| 18 | will | will | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 19 lend | aux |
| 19 | lend | lend | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 6 asked | parataxis |
| 20 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 22 cloth | nmod:poss |
| 21 | best | good | ADJ | Degree=Sup | 22 cloth | amod |
| 22 | cloth | cloth | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 lend | obj |
| 23 | to | to | ADP | _ | 25 friend | case |
| 24 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 25 friend | det |
| 25 | friend | friend | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 lend | obl |
| 26 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 whenever | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ask speech: ask | present · passive | people | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S_INF»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | change not said to happen | to-infinitive | people not said here | people's skins | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent skin=Patient | ||||
| 3 | refuse | present | people | people's skins not said here | always property | vn reject-77.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent skin=Theme | |||
| 4 | lend | future | people | people's best cloth | a friend | sometimes property | vn give-13.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent cloth=Theme to friend=Recipient |
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/pg70959/18/44/