Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 2, sentence 79
XXVII.--HOW A CRUEL INKUM CHIEF WAS POISONED BY HIS SLAVES, AND HOW HIS SON HANGED HIMSELF ON ACCOUNT OF THE EXPENSES OF HIS BROTHER’S FUNERAL.
Who acts: SLAVES, HIS · What happens: poison, hange, account · To what, where: CRUEL INKUM CHIEF, HIS, ACCOUNT, EXPENSES
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 (SLAVES, HIS), 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 | XXVII | xxvii | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 POISONED | obl |
| 2 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 1 XXVII | punct |
| 3 | -- | -- | PUNCT | _ | 10 POISONED | punct |
| 4 | HOW | how | ADV | PronType=Int | 10 POISONED | advmod |
| 5 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 8 CHIEF | det |
| 6 | CRUEL | cruel | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 CHIEF | amod |
| 7 | INKUM | INKUM | PROPN | Number=Sing | 8 CHIEF | compound |
| 8 | CHIEF | CHIEF | PROPN | Number=Sing | 10 POISONED | nsubj |
| 9 | WAS | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 POISONED | aux:pass |
| 10 | POISONED | poison | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 11 | BY | by | ADP | _ | 13 SLAVES | case |
| 12 | HIS | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 13 SLAVES | nmod:poss |
| 13 | SLAVES | slave | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 POISONED | obl |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 HANGED | punct |
| 15 | AND | and | CCONJ | _ | 19 HANGED | cc |
| 16 | HOW | how | ADV | PronType=Int | 19 HANGED | advmod |
| 17 | HIS | HIS | PROPN | Number=Sing | 19 HANGED | nsubj |
| 18 | SON | SON | PROPN | Number=Sing | 17 HIS | flat |
| 19 | HANGED | hange | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 POISONED | conj |
| 20 | HIMSELF | himself | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes | 19 HANGED | obj |
| 21 | ON | on | ADP | _ | 22 ACCOUNT | case |
| 22 | ACCOUNT | account | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 HANGED | obl |
| 23 | OF | of | ADP | _ | 25 EXPENSES | case |
| 24 | THE | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 25 EXPENSES | det |
| 25 | EXPENSES | expense | NOUN | Number=Plur | 22 ACCOUNT | nmod |
| 26 | OF | of | ADP | _ | 30 FUNERAL | case |
| 27 | HIS | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 28 BROTHER | nmod:poss |
| 28 | BROTHER | brother | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 FUNERAL | nmod:poss |
| 29 | ’S | 's | PART | _ | 28 BROTHER | case |
| 30 | FUNERAL | funeral | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 EXPENSES | nmod |
| 31 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 10 POISONED | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | poison | past · passive | hare's SLAVES | a CRUEL INKUM CHIEF | XXVII obl | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient | |||
| 2 | hange | past | HIS | HIS | ACCOUNT of the EXPENSES of hare's BROTHER's FUNERAL | tree rules | |||
| 3 | account | the EXPENSES of hare's BROTHER's FUNERAL | nom account «communication transitive»: of=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/pg70959/19/79/