Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 2, sentence 45
Having looked round everywhere carefully to see that no one was following or watching him, he commenced to eat the flesh of his late enemy.
Who acts: hare, one · What happens: have, look round, see, follow, watch, commence · To what, where: hare, flesh · 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, one), 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 | Having | have | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 18 commenced | advcl |
| 2 | looked | look | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 1 Having | xcomp |
| 3 | round | round | ADV | _ | 2 looked | advmod |
| 4 | everywhere | everywhere | ADV | PronType=Tot | 5 carefully | advmod |
| 5 | carefully | carefully | ADV | _ | 1 Having | advmod |
| 6 | to | to | PART | _ | 7 see | mark |
| 7 | see | see | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 1 Having | advcl |
| 8 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 12 following | mark |
| 9 | no | no | DET | PronType=Neg | 10 one | det |
| 10 | one | one | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 following | nsubj |
| 11 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 following | aux |
| 12 | following | follow | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 7 see | ccomp |
| 13 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 14 watching | cc |
| 14 | watching | watch | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 12 following | conj |
| 15 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 14 watching | obj |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Having | punct |
| 17 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 18 commenced | nsubj |
| 18 | commenced | commence | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 19 | to | to | PART | _ | 20 eat | mark |
| 20 | eat | eat | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 18 commenced | xcomp |
| 21 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 22 flesh | det |
| 22 | flesh | flesh | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 eat | obj |
| 23 | of | of | ADP | _ | 26 enemy | case |
| 24 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 26 enemy | nmod:poss |
| 25 | late | late | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 26 enemy | amod |
| 26 | enemy | enemy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 flesh | nmod |
| 27 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 18 commenced | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | have | gerund | hare not said here | carefully property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | look round | participle | hare not said here | round property | vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus | ||||
| 3 | see | to-infinitive | hare not said here | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | |||||
| 4 | follow | past · progressive | no one | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 5 | watch | gerund | no one not said here | hare | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme | ||||
| 6 | commence | past | hare | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 7 | eat | to-infinitive | hare not said here | the flesh of hare's late enemy | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent flesh=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/pg70959/19/45/