Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 2, sentence 20

When he got to the hole he found the old mother land crab at the entrance, and told her his usual story, asking her to help him, as the men always gave him up, and he promised to reward her if she drove his enemy away or killed him.

Who acts: hare, men, crab · What happens: get, find, tell, ask, help, give up · To what, where: old land crab, entrance, usual story, crab, hare, enemy · 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, men, crab), 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	When	when	ADV	PronType=Int	3 got	advmod
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 got	nsubj
3	got	get	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 found	advcl
4	to	to	ADP	_	6 hole	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 hole	det
6	hole	hole	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 got	obl
7	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 found	nsubj
8	found	find	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 crab	det
10	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 crab	amod
11	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 land	compound
12	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 crab	compound
13	crab	crab	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 found	obj
14	at	at	ADP	_	16 entrance	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 entrance	det
16	entrance	entrance	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 crab	nmod
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 told	punct
18	and	and	CCONJ	_	19 told	cc
19	told	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 found	parataxis
20	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 told	iobj
21	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	23 story	nmod:poss
22	usual	usual	ADJ	Degree=Pos	23 story	amod
23	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 told	obj
24	,	,	PUNCT	_	25 asking	punct
25	asking	ask	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	19 told	advcl
26	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	25 asking	obj
27	to	to	PART	_	28 help	mark
28	help	help	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	25 asking	xcomp
29	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	28 help	obj
30	,	,	PUNCT	_	35 gave	punct
31	as	as	SCONJ	_	35 gave	mark
32	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	33 men	det
33	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	35 gave	nsubj
34	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	35 gave	advmod
35	gave	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	19 told	conj
36	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	35 gave	iobj
37	up	up	ADP	_	35 gave	compound:prt
38	,	,	PUNCT	_	41 promised	punct
39	and	and	CCONJ	_	41 promised	cc
40	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	41 promised	nsubj
41	promised	promise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 found	conj
42	to	to	PART	_	43 reward	mark
43	reward	reward	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	41 promised	xcomp
44	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	43 reward	obj
45	if	if	SCONJ	_	47 drove	mark
46	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	47 drove	nsubj
47	drove	drive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	43 reward	advcl
48	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	49 enemy	nmod:poss
49	enemy	enemy	NOUN	Number=Sing	47 drove	obj
50	away	away	ADV	_	47 drove	advmod
51	or	or	CCONJ	_	52 killed	cc
52	killed	kill	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	41 promised	conj
53	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	52 killed	obj
54	.	.	PUNCT	_	8 found	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	other	roles by
1	get	past	hare				to the hole result	vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Patient to hole=Result
2	find	past	hare	the old land crab		the entrance		vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent crab=Theme at entrance=Asset
3	tell speech: assert	past		hare's usual story	crab			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent she=Recipient story=Topic
4	ask speech: ask	gerund			crab			vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S_INF»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic
5	help not said to happen	to-infinitive			hare			vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary
6	give up	past	the men		hare		always property	vn resign-10.11-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Source
7	promise speech: promise	past	hare					vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
8	reward not said to happen	to-infinitive	hare not said here		crab			vn equip-13.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent she=Recipient
9	drive away a condition, not said to happen	past	crab	hare's enemy			away property	vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent enemy=Theme
10	kill	past	hare not said here	hare				vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme

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/pg70959/19/20/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 2, sentence 20

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 2, sentence 20