Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 2, sentence 34
When the mother crab told the hare that she had killed the Elephantiasis he told her to drag the body to the stream and wash it.
Who acts: mother crab, Elephantiasis · What happens: tell, kill, drag, wash · To what, where: hare, crab, Elephantiasis, body, stream · 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 (mother crab, 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 | When | when | SCONJ | _ | 5 told | mark |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 crab | det |
| 3 | mother | mother | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 crab | compound |
| 4 | crab | crab | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 told | nsubj |
| 5 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 hare | det |
| 7 | hare | hare | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 told | iobj |
| 8 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 11 killed | mark |
| 9 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 killed | nsubj:pass |
| 10 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 11 killed | aux |
| 11 | killed | kill | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 5 told | ccomp |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 13 Elephantiasis | det |
| 13 | Elephantiasis | elephantiasis | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 killed | obj |
| 14 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 15 told | nsubj |
| 15 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 13 Elephantiasis | acl:relcl |
| 16 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 15 told | iobj |
| 17 | to | to | PART | _ | 18 drag | mark |
| 18 | drag | drag | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 15 told | xcomp |
| 19 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 20 body | det |
| 20 | body | body | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 drag | obj |
| 21 | to | to | ADP | _ | 23 stream | case |
| 22 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 stream | det |
| 23 | stream | stream | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 drag | obl |
| 24 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 25 wash | cc |
| 25 | wash | wash | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 18 drag | conj |
| 26 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 25 wash | obj |
| 27 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 told | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | tell speech: assert | past | the mother crab | the hare | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent hare=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 2 | kill | past · perfect · passive | crab | the Elephantiasis obj | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Experiencer elephantiasis=Result | ||||
| 3 | tell speech: assert | past | Elephantiasis | the Elephantiasis not said here | crab | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic | |||
| 4 | drag not said to happen | to-infinitive | the Elephantiasis not said here | the body | the stream | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent body=Theme to stream=Destination | |||
| 5 | wash | infinitive | the Elephantiasis not said here | body | vn floss-41.2.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
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/pg70959/19/34/