Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 1, sentence 8
He was very poor, and consequently was often starving, as he was unable to go about and beg for food.
Who acts: Oga · What happens: be, starve, go about, beg
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), 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 | 4 poor | nsubj |
| 2 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 poor | cop |
| 3 | very | very | ADV | _ | 4 poor | advmod |
| 4 | poor | poor | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 starving | punct |
| 6 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 10 starving | cc |
| 7 | consequently | consequently | ADV | _ | 10 starving | advmod |
| 8 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 starving | aux |
| 9 | often | often | ADV | _ | 10 starving | advmod |
| 10 | starving | starve | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 4 poor | conj |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 unable | punct |
| 12 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 15 unable | mark |
| 13 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 15 unable | nsubj |
| 14 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 15 unable | cop |
| 15 | unable | unable | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 poor | conj |
| 16 | to | to | PART | _ | 17 go | mark |
| 17 | go | go | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 15 unable | xcomp |
| 18 | about | about | ADV | _ | 17 go | advmod |
| 19 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 20 beg | cc |
| 20 | beg | beg | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 17 go | conj |
| 21 | for | for | ADP | _ | 22 food | case |
| 22 | food | food | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 beg | obl |
| 23 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 poor | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | Oga | poor property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | starve | past · progressive | Oga not said here | consequently, often property | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | is | past | Oga | unable property | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | go about | to-infinitive | Oga not said here | about property | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 5 | beg speech: request | present | Oga not said here | for food | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V PP.Topic»: agent=Agent for food=Topic |
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/pg70959/18/8/