Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 1, sentence 9
While Oga was sitting down in his house feeling sad and miserable, he sometimes thought of Abang, who belonged to his company, and envied him his good looks and his popularity.
Who acts: Oga, Abang · What happens: sit down, feel, think, belong, envy · To what, where: house, Oga
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, Abang), 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 | While | while | SCONJ | _ | 4 sitting | mark |
| 2 | Oga | Oga | PROPN | Number=Sing | 4 sitting | nsubj |
| 3 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 sitting | aux |
| 4 | sitting | sit | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 16 thought | advcl |
| 5 | down | down | ADV | _ | 4 sitting | advmod |
| 6 | in | in | ADP | _ | 8 house | case |
| 7 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 8 house | nmod:poss |
| 8 | house | house | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 sitting | obl |
| 9 | feeling | feel | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 4 sitting | advcl |
| 10 | sad | sad | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 9 feeling | xcomp |
| 11 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 12 miserable | cc |
| 12 | miserable | miserable | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 10 sad | conj |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 sitting | punct |
| 14 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 thought | nsubj |
| 15 | sometimes | sometimes | ADV | PronType=Ind | 16 thought | advmod |
| 16 | thought | think | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 17 | of | of | ADP | _ | 18 Abang | case |
| 18 | Abang | Abang | PROPN | Number=Sing | 16 thought | obl |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 21 belonged | punct |
| 20 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 21 belonged | nsubj |
| 21 | belonged | belong | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 18 Abang | acl:relcl |
| 22 | to | to | ADP | _ | 24 company | case |
| 23 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 24 company | nmod:poss |
| 24 | company | company | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 belonged | obl |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 27 envied | punct |
| 26 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 27 envied | cc |
| 27 | envied | envy | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 16 thought | conj |
| 28 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 27 envied | obj |
| 29 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 31 looks | nmod:poss |
| 30 | good | good | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 31 looks | amod |
| 31 | looks | look | NOUN | Number=Plur | 27 envied | obj |
| 32 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 34 popularity | cc |
| 33 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 34 popularity | nmod:poss |
| 34 | popularity | popularity | NOUN | Number=Sing | 31 looks | conj |
| 35 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 16 thought | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | sit down | past · progressive | Oga | Oga's house | down property | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in house=Location | |||
| 2 | feel | gerund | Oga not said here | sad property | vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus | ||||
| 3 | think speech: other | past | Oga | of Abang; sometimes property | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 4 | belong | past | Abang | to Oga's company | vn attend-107.4-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 5 | envy | past | Oga not said here | Oga | Oga's good looks and Oga's popularity obj | tree rules |
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/pg70959/18/9/