Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 2, sentence 85
If any of them failed to do so, he tied them up to a tree and they were given fifty lashes on the back with a heavy whip made of twisted skin.
Who acts: any, Inkum · What happens: fail, not do, tie up, give, make · To what, where: camwood, back, heavy whip
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 (any, Inkum), 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 | If | if | SCONJ | _ | 5 failed | mark |
| 2 | any | any | DET | PronType=Ind | 5 failed | nsubj |
| 3 | of | of | ADP | _ | 4 them | case |
| 4 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 any | nmod |
| 5 | failed | fail | VERB | Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 11 tied | advcl |
| 6 | to | to | PART | _ | 7 do | mark |
| 7 | do | do | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 5 failed | xcomp |
| 8 | so | so | ADV | _ | 7 do | advmod |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 5 failed | punct |
| 10 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 tied | nsubj |
| 11 | tied | tie | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 12 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 tied | obj |
| 13 | up | up | ADP | _ | 11 tied | compound:prt |
| 14 | to | to | ADP | _ | 16 tree | case |
| 15 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 16 tree | det |
| 16 | tree | tree | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 tied | obl |
| 17 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 20 given | cc |
| 18 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 20 given | nsubj |
| 19 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 20 given | aux:pass |
| 20 | given | give | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 11 tied | conj |
| 21 | fifty | fifty | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 22 lashes | nummod |
| 22 | lashes | lash | NOUN | Number=Plur | 20 given | obj |
| 23 | on | on | ADP | _ | 25 back | case |
| 24 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 25 back | det |
| 25 | back | back | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 given | obl |
| 26 | with | with | ADP | _ | 29 whip | case |
| 27 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 29 whip | det |
| 28 | heavy | heavy | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 29 whip | amod |
| 29 | whip | whip | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 given | obl |
| 30 | made | make | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 29 whip | acl |
| 31 | of | of | ADP | _ | 33 skin | case |
| 32 | twisted | twisted | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 33 skin | amod |
| 33 | skin | skin | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 made | obl |
| 34 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 11 tied | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | fail a condition, not said to happen | past | any of camwood | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 2 | not do | to-infinitive | any of camwood not said here | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 3 | tie up | past | Inkum | camwood | to a tree | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent they=Patient to tree=Co-Patient | |||
| 4 | give | past · passive | camwood | the back | with a heavy whip; fifty lashes obj | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP NP PP.asset»: subject=Recipient lash=Theme on back=Asset | |||
| 5 | make | participle | a heavy whip not said here | of twisted skin | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset |
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/pg70959/19/85/