Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 2, sentence 62
He then told his friend that his wife had left him because he had lost part of his tail, and was on her way to see whether he had also lost his.
Who acts: hare, wife · What happens: tell, leave, lose, be, see · To what, where: friend, hare, part, way · 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, 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 | He | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 told | nsubj |
| 2 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 3 told | advmod |
| 3 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 5 friend | nmod:poss |
| 5 | friend | friend | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 told | iobj |
| 6 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 10 left | mark |
| 7 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 8 wife | nmod:poss |
| 8 | wife | wife | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 left | nsubj |
| 9 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 left | aux |
| 10 | left | leave | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 3 told | ccomp |
| 11 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 10 left | iobj |
| 12 | because | because | SCONJ | _ | 15 lost | mark |
| 13 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 15 lost | nsubj |
| 14 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 15 lost | aux |
| 15 | lost | lose | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 10 left | advcl |
| 16 | part | part | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 lost | obj |
| 17 | of | of | ADP | _ | 19 tail | case |
| 18 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 19 tail | nmod:poss |
| 19 | tail | tail | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 part | nmod |
| 20 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 25 way | punct |
| 21 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 25 way | cc |
| 22 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 25 way | cop |
| 23 | on | on | ADP | _ | 25 way | case |
| 24 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 25 way | nmod:poss |
| 25 | way | way | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 told | ccomp |
| 26 | to | to | PART | _ | 27 see | mark |
| 27 | see | see | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 25 way | acl |
| 28 | whether | whether | SCONJ | _ | 32 lost | mark |
| 29 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 32 lost | nsubj |
| 30 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 32 lost | aux |
| 31 | also | also | ADV | _ | 32 lost | advmod |
| 32 | lost | lose | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 27 see | ccomp |
| 33 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 32 lost | obj |
| 34 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 told | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | tell speech: assert | past | hare | hare's friend | then | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent friend=Recipient clause=Topic | |||
| 2 | leave | past · perfect | hare's wife | hare | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme | ||||
| 3 | lose | past · perfect | hare | part of hare's tail | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent part=Eventuality | ||||
| 4 | is | past | wife's way | wife nmod:poss | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | see | to-infinitive | hare not said here | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | |||||
| 6 | lose | past · perfect | hare | friend | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent his=Eventuality |
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/pg70959/19/62/