Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 2, sentence 46
All this time the ants were busy building their house, and while the hare was eating his food the ants had covered half his tail and had bitten it through.
Who acts: ants, hare · What happens: be, build, eat, cover, bite · To what, where: house, food, ants, tail
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 (ants, 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 | All | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 3 time | det:predet |
| 2 | this | this | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 3 time | det |
| 3 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 busy | obl |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 ants | det |
| 5 | ants | ant | NOUN | Number=Plur | 7 busy | nsubj |
| 6 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 busy | cop |
| 7 | busy | busy | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 8 | building | build | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 7 busy | advcl |
| 9 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 10 house | nmod:poss |
| 10 | house | house | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 building | obj |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 eating | punct |
| 12 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 eating | cc |
| 13 | while | while | SCONJ | _ | 17 eating | mark |
| 14 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 hare | det |
| 15 | hare | hare | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 eating | nsubj |
| 16 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 17 eating | aux |
| 17 | eating | eat | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 8 building | conj |
| 18 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 19 food | nmod:poss |
| 19 | food | food | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 eating | obj |
| 20 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 21 ants | det |
| 21 | ants | ant | NOUN | Number=Plur | 23 covered | nsubj:pass |
| 22 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 23 covered | aux |
| 23 | covered | cover | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 17 eating | conj |
| 24 | half | half | DET | NumForm=Word NumType=Frac PronType=Ind | 26 tail | det:predet |
| 25 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 26 tail | nmod:poss |
| 26 | tail | tail | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 covered | obj |
| 27 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 29 bitten | cc |
| 28 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 29 bitten | aux |
| 29 | bitten | bite | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 7 busy | conj |
| 30 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 29 bitten | obj |
| 31 | through | through | ADV | _ | 29 bitten | advmod |
| 32 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 7 busy | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | the ants | time | busy property | tree rules | |||
| 2 | build | gerund | the ants not said here | ants's house | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset house=Product | ||||
| 3 | eat | past · progressive | the hare | hare's food | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent food=Patient | ||||
| 4 | cover | past · perfect · passive | the ants | hare's tail obj | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | bite | past · perfect | the ants not said here | tail | through property | vn swat-18.2 «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/pg70959/19/46/