Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 2, sentence 76

To this they all agreed, and cut their long tails off in order to escape from any enemy who might try to catch them by the tail, and ever since the hares have had no tails, as when the men-hares went home they made their wives and children follow their example, telling them that it was done for their good by the war ju-ju to prevent them from dying in battle.

Who acts: men, enemy, hares, children, ju ju · What happens: agree, cut off, escape, try, catch, have · To what, where: long tails, order, enemy, men, tails, wives · 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 (men, enemy, hares, children), 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	To	to	ADP	_	3 they	case
2	this	this	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 they	nsubj
3	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 cut	nsubj
4	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	3 they	det
5	agreed	agree	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 all	acl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 cut	punct
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 cut	cc
8	cut	cut	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 tails	nmod:poss
10	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 tails	amod
11	tails	tail	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 cut	obj
12	off	off	ADP	_	8 cut	compound:prt
13	in	in	ADP	_	14 order	case
14	order	order	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 cut	obl
15	to	to	PART	_	16 escape	mark
16	escape	escape	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 cut	advcl
17	from	from	ADP	_	19 enemy	case
18	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	19 enemy	det
19	enemy	enemy	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 escape	obl
20	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	22 try	nsubj
21	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	22 try	aux
22	try	try	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	19 enemy	acl:relcl
23	to	to	PART	_	24 catch	mark
24	catch	catch	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	22 try	xcomp
25	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	24 catch	obj
26	by	by	ADP	_	28 tail	case
27	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	28 tail	det
28	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	24 catch	obl
29	,	,	PUNCT	_	36 had	punct
30	and	and	CCONJ	_	36 had	cc
31	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	36 had	advmod
32	since	since	SCONJ	_	36 had	mark
33	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	34 hares	det
34	hares	hare	NOUN	Number=Plur	36 had	nsubj
35	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	36 had	aux
36	had	have	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	8 cut	parataxis
37	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	38 tails	det
38	tails	tail	NOUN	Number=Plur	36 had	obj
39	,	,	PUNCT	_	46 went	punct
40	as	as	SCONJ	_	46 went	mark
41	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	46 went	advmod
42	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	43 men	det
43	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	46 went	nsubj
44	-	-	PUNCT	_	45 hares	punct
45	hares	hare	NOUN	Number=Plur	43 men	conj
46	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	36 had	conj
47	home	home	ADV	_	46 went	advmod
48	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	49 made	nsubj
49	made	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	46 went	ccomp
50	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	51 wives	nmod:poss
51	wives	wife	NOUN	Number=Plur	49 made	obj
52	and	and	CCONJ	_	54 follow	cc
53	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	54 follow	nsubj
54	follow	follow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	49 made	conj
55	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	56 example	nmod:poss
56	example	example	NOUN	Number=Sing	54 follow	obj
57	,	,	PUNCT	_	58 telling	punct
58	telling	tell	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	54 follow	advcl
59	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	58 telling	iobj
60	that	that	SCONJ	_	63 done	mark
61	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	63 done	nsubj:pass
62	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	63 done	aux:pass
63	done	do	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	58 telling	advcl
64	for	for	ADP	_	66 good	case
65	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	66 good	nmod:poss
66	good	good	ADJ	Degree=Pos	63 done	obl
67	by	by	ADP	_	72 ju	case
68	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	72 ju	det
69	war	war	NOUN	Number=Sing	72 ju	nsubj
70	ju	ju	NOUN	Number=Sing	72 ju	compound
71	-	-	PUNCT	_	72 ju	punct
72	ju	ju	NOUN	Number=Sing	63 done	obl
73	to	to	PART	_	74 prevent	mark
74	prevent	prevent	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	63 done	advcl
75	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	74 prevent	obj
76	from	from	SCONJ	_	77 dying	mark
77	dying	die	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	74 prevent	advcl
78	in	in	ADP	_	79 battle	case
79	battle	battle	NOUN	Number=Sing	77 dying	obl
80	.	.	PUNCT	_	8 cut	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	agree speech: agree	participle							vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	cut off	past	men = man	men's long tails		order			vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector tail=Eventuality
3	escape	to-infinitive	men = man not said here			any enemy			vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme from enemy=Initial_Location
4	try	might	any enemy						vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
5	catch not said to happen	to-infinitive	any enemy not said here	men = man				by the tail	vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme
6	have	present · perfect	the hares	no tails			ever		vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tail=Patient
7	go	past	the men and hares					home property	vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
8	make	past	men = man	men's wives					vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset wife=Product
9	follow	present	children	men's example					vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent example=Theme
10	tell speech: assert	gerund	children not said here		men = man				vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent they=Recipient
11	do	past · passive	the ju ju war	tail				for men's good	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Eventuality
12	prevent	to-infinitive	the ju ju war not said here	men = man					vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer they=Theme
13	die	gerund	the ju ju war not said here					in battle	vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in battle=Attribute
14	exemplify		men = man						nom example «cognition transitive»: poss=agent

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/pg70959/19/76/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 2, sentence 76

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 2, sentence 76