Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 2, sentence 87

This meant that all the women slaves had to work very hard indeed, and they could get no help from their husbands in any way, as at first cock-crow all the men were sent off to the farm to work, and were not allowed to return until the evening.

Who acts: This, women slaves, SLAVES, first cock crow · What happens: mean, have, work, get, send off, not allow · To what, where: help, way, men, farm · 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 (This, women slaves, SLAVES, first cock crow), 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	This	this	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	2 meant	nsubj
2	meant	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	8 had	mark
4	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	7 slaves	det:predet
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 slaves	det
6	women	woman	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 slaves	compound
7	slaves	slave	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 had	nsubj
8	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 meant	ccomp
9	to	to	PART	_	10 work	mark
10	work	work	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 had	xcomp
11	very	very	ADV	_	12 hard	advmod
12	hard	hard	ADV	Degree=Pos	10 work	advmod
13	indeed	indeed	ADV	_	10 work	advmod
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 get	punct
15	and	and	CCONJ	_	18 get	cc
16	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	18 get	nsubj
17	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	18 get	aux
18	get	get	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 meant	conj
19	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	20 help	det
20	help	help	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 get	obj
21	from	from	ADP	_	23 husbands	case
22	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	23 husbands	nmod:poss
23	husbands	husband	NOUN	Number=Plur	18 get	obl
24	in	in	ADP	_	26 way	case
25	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	26 way	det
26	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 get	obl
27	,	,	PUNCT	_	33 crow	punct
28	as	as	ADP	_	33 crow	case
29	at	at	ADP	_	33 crow	case
30	first	first	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	33 crow	amod
31	cock	cock	NOUN	Number=Sing	33 crow	compound
32	-	-	PUNCT	_	31 cock	punct
33	crow	crow	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 get	parataxis
34	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	36 men	det:predet
35	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	36 men	det
36	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	38 sent	nsubj:pass
37	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	38 sent	aux:pass
38	sent	send	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	33 crow	acl:relcl
39	off	off	ADP	_	38 sent	compound:prt
40	to	to	ADP	_	42 farm	case
41	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	42 farm	det
42	farm	farm	NOUN	Number=Sing	38 sent	obl
43	to	to	PART	_	44 work	mark
44	work	work	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	38 sent	advcl
45	,	,	PUNCT	_	49 allowed	punct
46	and	and	CCONJ	_	49 allowed	cc
47	were	be	AUX	Mood=Sub Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	49 allowed	aux:pass
48	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	49 allowed	advmod
49	allowed	allow	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 meant	conj
50	to	to	PART	_	51 return	mark
51	return	return	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	49 allowed	xcomp
52	until	until	ADP	_	54 evening	case
53	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	54 evening	det
54	evening	evening	NOUN	Number=Sing	51 return	obl
55	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 meant	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	past	This					vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	have	past	all women slaves					tree rules
3	work	to-infinitive	all women slaves not said here				hard, indeed property	vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	get	could	SLAVES = slave	no help	any way		from SLAVES's husbands; first cock crow parataxis	vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent help=Theme from husband=Source
5	send off	past · passive	first cock crow not said here	all men	the farm			vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme to farm=Destination
6	work	to-infinitive	first cock crow not said here					vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent
7	not allow	past · passive	This not said here					vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V S_ING»: clause=Eventuality
8	return not said to happen	to-infinitive	This not said here			evening		vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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/pg70959/19/87/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 2, sentence 87

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 2, sentence 87