Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 2, sentence 51
And as it was then dark the hare’s wife lit the lamp,[10] but the hare hid his tail in the darkness so that his wife could not see it, as the wound had not healed up.
Who acts: chief, hare, wife · What happens: be, light, hide, not see, not heal up · To what, where: lamp, tail, darkness, wound
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 (chief, hare, wife), 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 | And | and | CCONJ | _ | 11 lit | cc |
| 2 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 6 dark | mark |
| 3 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 6 dark | nsubj |
| 4 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 dark | cop |
| 5 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 6 dark | advmod |
| 6 | dark | dark | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 11 lit | advcl |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 hare | det |
| 8 | hare | hare | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 wife | nmod:poss |
| 9 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 8 hare | case |
| 10 | wife | wife | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 dark | nsubj |
| 11 | lit | light | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 13 lamp | det |
| 13 | lamp | lamp | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 lit | obj |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 10 | punct |
| 15 | [ | [ | PUNCT | _ | 16 10 | punct |
| 16 | 10 | 10 | NUM | NumForm=Digit NumType=Card | 11 lit | obl |
| 17 | ] | ] | PUNCT | _ | 16 10 | punct |
| 18 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 21 hid | cc |
| 19 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 20 hare | det |
| 20 | hare | hare | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 hid | nsubj |
| 21 | hid | hide | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 11 lit | conj |
| 22 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 23 tail | nmod:poss |
| 23 | tail | tail | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 hid | obj |
| 24 | in | in | ADP | _ | 26 darkness | case |
| 25 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 26 darkness | det |
| 26 | darkness | darkness | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 hid | obl |
| 27 | so | so | SCONJ | ExtPos=SCONJ | 33 see | mark |
| 28 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 27 so | fixed |
| 29 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 30 wife | nmod:poss |
| 30 | wife | wife | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 see | nsubj |
| 31 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 33 see | aux |
| 32 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 33 see | advmod |
| 33 | see | see | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 21 hid | advcl |
| 34 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 33 see | obj |
| 35 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 41 healed | punct |
| 36 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 41 healed | mark |
| 37 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 38 wound | det |
| 38 | wound | wound | NOUN | Number=Sing | 41 healed | nsubj:pass |
| 39 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 41 healed | aux |
| 40 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 41 healed | advmod |
| 41 | healed | heal | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 33 see | conj |
| 42 | up | up | ADP | _ | 41 healed | compound:prt |
| 43 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 11 lit | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | chief | then | the hare's wife nsubj; dark property | tree rules | |||
| 2 | light | past | the lamp | 10 obl | vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lamp=Product | ||||
| 3 | hide | past | the hare | hare's tail | the darkness | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent tail=Patient in darkness=Location | |||
| 4 | not see | could | hare's wife | tail | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus | ||||
| 5 | not heal up | past · perfect · passive | the wound | vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=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/pg70959/19/51/