Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 1, sentence 50

Once while the people were feasting and playing round the ju-ju, the hare came along with his fine tail, and seeing them all eating goat’s-flesh, fowls, foo-foo and yams, he asked Okpa if he might join in the feast, as the hare was very greedy and could never resist eating anything he saw.

Who acts: people, hare, feasting, Okpa · What happens: feast, play, come along, see, eat, fowl · To what, where: ju ju, people, foo foo, Okpa, anything

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, hare, feasting, Okpa), 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	Once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	6 feasting	advmod
2	while	while	SCONJ	_	6 feasting	mark
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 people	det
4	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 feasting	nsubj
5	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 feasting	aux
6	feasting	feast	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	33 fowls	csubj
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 playing	cc
8	playing	play	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 feasting	conj
9	round	round	ADP	_	13 ju	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 ju	det
11	ju	ju	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 ju	compound
12	-	-	PUNCT	_	11 ju	punct
13	ju	ju	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 playing	obl
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 came	punct
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 hare	det
16	hare	hare	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 came	nsubj
17	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 ju	acl:relcl
18	along	along	ADV	_	17 came	advmod
19	with	with	ADP	_	22 tail	case
20	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	22 tail	nmod:poss
21	fine	fine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	22 tail	amod
22	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 came	obl
23	,	,	PUNCT	_	25 seeing	punct
24	and	and	CCONJ	_	25 seeing	cc
25	seeing	see	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 feasting	advcl
26	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	25 seeing	obj
27	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	29 goat’s	det
28	eating	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	29 goat’s	amod
29	goat’s	goat'	NOUN	Number=Plur	31 flesh	nmod:poss
30	-	-	PUNCT	_	29 goat’s	punct
31	flesh	flesh	NOUN	Number=Sing	25 seeing	obj
32	,	,	PUNCT	_	33 fowls	punct
33	fowls	fowl	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
34	,	,	PUNCT	_	37 foo	punct
35	foo	foo	NOUN	Number=Sing	37 foo	compound
36	-	-	PUNCT	_	35 foo	punct
37	foo	foo	NOUN	Number=Sing	33 fowls	obj
38	and	and	CCONJ	_	39 yams	cc
39	yams	yam	NOUN	Number=Plur	37 foo	conj
40	,	,	PUNCT	_	42 asked	punct
41	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	42 asked	nsubj
42	asked	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	33 fowls	parataxis
43	Okpa	Okpa	PROPN	Number=Sing	42 asked	iobj
44	if	if	SCONJ	_	47 join	mark
45	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	47 join	nsubj
46	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	47 join	aux
47	join	join	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	42 asked	xcomp
48	in	in	ADP	_	50 feast	case
49	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	50 feast	det
50	feast	feast	NOUN	Number=Sing	47 join	obl
51	,	,	PUNCT	_	57 greedy	punct
52	as	as	SCONJ	_	57 greedy	mark
53	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	54 hare	det
54	hare	hare	NOUN	Number=Sing	57 greedy	nsubj
55	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	57 greedy	cop
56	very	very	ADV	_	57 greedy	advmod
57	greedy	greedy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	42 asked	parataxis
58	and	and	CCONJ	_	61 resist	cc
59	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	61 resist	aux
60	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	61 resist	advmod
61	resist	resist	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	57 greedy	conj
62	eating	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	61 resist	xcomp
63	anything	anything	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	62 eating	obj
64	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	65 saw	nsubj
65	saw	see	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	63 anything	acl:relcl
66	.	.	PUNCT	_	33 fowls	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	feast	past · progressive	the people			once property	vn dine-39.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	play	gerund	the people not said here			round the ju ju	vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	come along	past	the hare	the ju ju not said here		with Okpa's fine tail; along property	vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location ju=Theme
4	see	gerund	the people not said here	people		all eating goat’s's flesh obj	tree rules
5	eat	gerund					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
6	fowl	present	feasting	foo foo and yams			vn berry-13.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent foo=Location
7	ask speech: ask	past	Okpa		Okpa		vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent okpa=Recipient clause=Topic
8	join a condition, not said to happen	might	Okpa			in the feast	vn cooperate-73.1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent in feast=Theme
9	is	past	the hare			greedy property	tree rules
10	not resist	could	the hare not said here				tree rules
11	eat	gerund	the hare not said here	anything			vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Patient
12	see	past	Okpa				vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer

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/pg70959/18/50/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 1, sentence 50

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 1, sentence 50