Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 2, sentence 50

The hare said, “All the trouble is now over, as I have gone through the ceremony of the war ju-ju, and the chief cut me on the tail so that in future I shall never die from war or fighting in any way.”

Who acts: hare, trouble, chief · What happens: say, be, go, cut, not die · To what, where: ceremony, hare, tail · 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, trouble, chief), 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	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 hare	det
2	hare	hare	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 said	nsubj
3	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 over	punct
5	“	"	PUNCT	_	11 over	punct
6	All	all	DET	PronType=Tot	8 trouble	det:predet
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 trouble	det
8	trouble	trouble	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 over	nsubj
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 over	cop
10	now	now	ADV	PronType=Dem	11 over	advmod
11	over	over	ADV	_	3 said	ccomp
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 gone	punct
13	as	as	SCONJ	_	16 gone	mark
14	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	16 gone	nsubj
15	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 gone	aux
16	gone	go	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	3 said	conj
17	through	through	ADP	_	19 ceremony	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 ceremony	det
19	ceremony	ceremony	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 gone	obl
20	of	of	ADP	_	25 ju	case
21	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	25 ju	det
22	war	war	NOUN	Number=Sing	25 ju	compound
23	ju	ju	NOUN	Number=Sing	25 ju	compound
24	-	-	PUNCT	_	23 ju	punct
25	ju	ju	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 ceremony	nmod
26	,	,	PUNCT	_	30 cut	punct
27	and	and	CCONJ	_	30 cut	cc
28	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	29 chief	det
29	chief	chief	NOUN	Number=Sing	30 cut	nsubj
30	cut	cut	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 said	parataxis
31	me	I	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	30 cut	iobj
32	on	on	ADP	_	34 tail	case
33	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	34 tail	det
34	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	30 cut	obl
35	so	so	SCONJ	ExtPos=SCONJ	42 die	mark
36	that	that	SCONJ	_	35 so	fixed
37	in	in	ADP	_	38 future	case
38	future	future	NOUN	Number=Sing	42 die	obl
39	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	42 die	nsubj
40	shall	shall	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	42 die	aux
41	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	42 die	advmod
42	die	die	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	30 cut	advcl
43	from	from	ADP	_	44 war	case
44	war	war	NOUN	Number=Sing	42 die	obl
45	or	or	CCONJ	_	46 fighting	cc
46	fighting	fighting	NOUN	Number=Sing	44 war	conj
47	in	in	ADP	_	49 way	case
48	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	49 way	det
49	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	42 die	obl
50	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 said	punct
51	”	"	PUNCT	_	3 said	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	past	the hare					vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	is in a quote	present	all trouble			now	over property	tree rules
3	go in a quote	present · perfect	the hare = hare		the ceremony of the war ju ju			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme through ceremony=Initial_Location
4	cut in a quote	past	the chief	the hare = hare	the tail			vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset i=Product
5	not die in a quote	shall	the hare = hare				from war or fighting; in any way; in future	vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in future=Attribute

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/pg70959/19/50/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 2, sentence 50

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 2, sentence 50