Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 2, sentence 2
He went up to them, and having told them a long story about the cruel enemy he was running away from, begged them to hide him and cover him up with leaves and branches so that he should not be discovered.
Who acts: hare · What happens: go up, have, tell, run away, beg, hide · To what, where: people, long story, cruel enemy, hare · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (hare), 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 | 2 went | nsubj |
| 2 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | up | up | ADP | _ | 2 went | compound:prt |
| 4 | to | to | ADP | _ | 5 them | case |
| 5 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 went | obl |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 9 told | punct |
| 7 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 9 told | cc |
| 8 | having | have | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 9 told | ccomp |
| 9 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 went | parataxis |
| 10 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 9 told | iobj |
| 11 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 13 story | det |
| 12 | long | long | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 13 story | amod |
| 13 | story | story | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 told | obj |
| 14 | about | about | ADP | _ | 17 enemy | case |
| 15 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 enemy | det |
| 16 | cruel | cruel | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 17 enemy | amod |
| 17 | enemy | enemy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 story | nmod |
| 18 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 20 running | nsubj |
| 19 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 20 running | aux |
| 20 | running | run | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 17 enemy | acl:relcl |
| 21 | away | away | ADV | _ | 20 running | advmod |
| 22 | from | from | ADP | _ | 20 running | obl |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 begged | punct |
| 24 | begged | beg | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 told | conj |
| 25 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 24 begged | obj |
| 26 | to | to | PART | _ | 27 hide | mark |
| 27 | hide | hide | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 24 begged | advcl |
| 28 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 27 hide | obj |
| 29 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 30 cover | cc |
| 30 | cover | cover | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 27 hide | conj |
| 31 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 30 cover | obj |
| 32 | up | up | ADP | _ | 30 cover | compound:prt |
| 33 | with | with | ADP | _ | 34 leaves | case |
| 34 | leaves | leaf | NOUN | Number=Plur | 30 cover | obl |
| 35 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 36 branches | cc |
| 36 | branches | branch | NOUN | Number=Plur | 34 leaves | conj |
| 37 | so | so | SCONJ | ExtPos=SCONJ | 43 discovered | mark |
| 38 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 37 so | fixed |
| 39 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 43 discovered | nsubj |
| 40 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 43 discovered | aux |
| 41 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 43 discovered | advmod |
| 42 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 43 discovered | aux:pass |
| 43 | discovered | discover | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 30 cover | advcl |
| 44 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 went | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | go up | past | hare | people | vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute | ||||
| 2 | have | gerund | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | ||||||
| 3 | tell speech: assert | past | a long story | people | about the cruel enemy | tree rules | |||
| 4 | run away | past · progressive | hare | the cruel enemy not said here | away property | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme enemy=Trajectory | |||
| 5 | beg speech: request | past | people | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.Topic»: agent=Agent they=Recipient | |||||
| 6 | hide | to-infinitive | hare | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient | |||||
| 7 | cover up | infinitive | hare | with leaves and branches | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent he=Destination with leaf=Theme | ||||
| 8 | not discover | should · passive | hare | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: subject=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/pg70959/19/2/