Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 2, sentence 29
At this the Elephantiasis rolled himself back a few paces, and then went for the crab.
Who acts: Elephantiasis · What happens: roll back, go · To what, where: Elephantiasis, this
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 (Elephantiasis), 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 | At | at | ADP | _ | 2 this | case |
| 2 | this | this | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 5 rolled | obl |
| 3 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 Elephantiasis | det |
| 4 | Elephantiasis | Elephantiasis | PROPN | Number=Sing | 5 rolled | nsubj |
| 5 | rolled | roll | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 6 | himself | himself | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes | 5 rolled | obj |
| 7 | back | back | ADV | _ | 5 rolled | advmod |
| 8 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 10 paces | det |
| 9 | few | few | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 10 paces | amod |
| 10 | paces | pace | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 rolled | obj |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 went | punct |
| 12 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 14 went | cc |
| 13 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 14 went | advmod |
| 14 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 rolled | conj |
| 15 | for | for | ADP | _ | 17 crab | case |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 crab | det |
| 17 | crab | crab | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 went | obl |
| 18 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 rolled | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | roll back | past | the Elephantiasis | Elephantiasis | this | a few paces obj | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP ADJ.result»: agent=Agent himself=Theme pace=Result | ||
| 2 | go | past | the Elephantiasis not said here | then | for the crab | vn help-72.1-2 «NP V PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent for crab=Beneficiary |
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/pg70959/19/29/