Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 1, sentence 49

Whenever a sacrifice was about to be made, all the people who belonged to the society used to meet together and sit down all round the ju-ju, but as the law of the ju-ju was that no man should open his legs, the people always tied their knees and ankles together with tie-tie, because if anyone opened his legs he would at once get elephantiasis.

Who acts: sacrifice, people, man, anyone · What happens: be, make, belong, use, meet, sit down · To what, where: knees, legs, elephantiasis

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 (sacrifice, people, man, anyone), 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	Whenever	whenever	ADV	PronType=Rel	5 about	advmod
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 sacrifice	det
3	sacrifice	sacrifice	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 about	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 about	cop
5	about	about	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	8 made	mark
7	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	8 made	aux:pass
8	made	make	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 about	advcl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 people	punct
10	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	12 people	det:predet
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 people	det
12	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 made	obl:agent
13	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	14 belonged	nsubj
14	belonged	belong	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 people	acl:relcl
15	to	to	ADP	_	17 society	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 society	det
17	society	society	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 belonged	obl
18	used	use	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	14 belonged	ccomp
19	to	to	PART	_	20 meet	mark
20	meet	meet	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	18 used	advcl
21	together	together	ADV	_	20 meet	advmod
22	and	and	CCONJ	_	23 sit	cc
23	sit	sit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 made	conj
24	down	down	ADP	_	23 sit	compound:prt
25	all	all	ADV	_	30 ju	advmod
26	round	round	ADP	_	30 ju	case
27	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	30 ju	det
28	ju	ju	NOUN	Number=Sing	30 ju	compound
29	-	-	PUNCT	_	28 ju	punct
30	ju	ju	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 sit	obl
31	,	,	PUNCT	_	46 open	punct
32	but	but	CCONJ	_	46 open	cc
33	as	as	ADP	_	35 law	case
34	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	35 law	det
35	law	law	NOUN	Number=Sing	46 open	obl
36	of	of	ADP	_	40 ju	case
37	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	40 ju	det
38	ju	ju	NOUN	Number=Sing	40 ju	compound
39	-	-	PUNCT	_	38 ju	punct
40	ju	ju	NOUN	Number=Sing	35 law	nmod
41	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	46 open	cop
42	that	that	SCONJ	_	46 open	mark
43	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	44 man	det
44	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	46 open	nsubj
45	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	46 open	aux
46	open	open	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	23 sit	parataxis
47	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	48 legs	nmod:poss
48	legs	leg	NOUN	Number=Plur	46 open	obj
49	,	,	PUNCT	_	53 tied	punct
50	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	51 people	det
51	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	53 tied	nsubj
52	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	53 tied	advmod
53	tied	tie	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	46 open	conj
54	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	55 knees	nmod:poss
55	knees	knee	NOUN	Number=Plur	53 tied	obj
56	and	and	CCONJ	_	57 ankles	cc
57	ankles	ankle	NOUN	Number=Plur	55 knees	conj
58	together	together	ADV	_	53 tied	advmod
59	with	with	ADP	_	62 tie	case
60	tie	tie	NOUN	Number=Sing	62 tie	compound
61	-	-	PUNCT	_	60 tie	punct
62	tie	tie	NOUN	Number=Sing	53 tied	obl
63	,	,	PUNCT	_	74 get	punct
64	because	because	SCONJ	_	71 would	mark
65	if	if	SCONJ	_	67 opened	mark
66	anyone	anyone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	67 opened	nsubj
67	opened	open	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	71 would	advcl
68	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	69 legs	nmod:poss
69	legs	leg	NOUN	Number=Plur	67 opened	obj
70	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	71 would	nsubj
71	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	74 get	aux
72	at	at	ADP	_	73 once	case
73	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	74 get	obl
74	get	get	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	46 open	conj
75	elephantiasis	elephantiasis	NOUN	Number=Sing	74 get	obj
76	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 about	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	past	a sacrifice		about, whenever property	tree rules
2	make	to-infinitive · passive	all people			vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	belong	past	all people		to the society	tree rules
4	use	participle	all people not said here			vn eat-39.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
5	meet	to-infinitive	all people not said here		together property	vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
6	sit down	present	all people not said here		round the ju ju	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent
7	is	should · past	no man		as the law of the ju ju; Okpa's legs obj; open property	tree rules
8	tie	past	the people	men's knees and ankles	with tie tie; always, together property	vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent knee=Patient with tie=Co-Patient
9	open a condition, not said to happen	past	anyone	Okpa's legs		vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location leg=Theme
10	get	would	no man not said here	elephantiasis		vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent elephantiasis=Theme at once=Asset

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/pg70959/18/49/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 1, sentence 49

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 1, sentence 49