Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 3, sentence 10
The head slave also said that ever since he had been married his wife had always brought the right number of cakes, and as this was the first time she had failed to do so he begged the chief not to punish her.
Who acts: head slave, this, Erim, Chief · What happens: say, marry, bring, be, fail, not do · To what, where: Chief, wife, first time, Erim · 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 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (head slave, this, Erim, Chief), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 slave | det |
| 2 | head | head | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 slave | compound |
| 3 | slave | slave | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 said | nsubj |
| 4 | also | also | ADV | _ | 5 said | advmod |
| 5 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 6 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 12 married | mark |
| 7 | ever | ever | ADV | PronType=Ind | 12 married | advmod |
| 8 | since | since | SCONJ | _ | 12 married | mark |
| 9 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 12 married | nsubj:pass |
| 10 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 married | aux |
| 11 | been | be | AUX | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 12 married | aux:pass |
| 12 | married | marry | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 5 said | ccomp |
| 13 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 14 wife | nmod:poss |
| 14 | wife | wife | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 brought | nsubj:pass |
| 15 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 17 brought | aux |
| 16 | always | always | ADV | PronType=Tot | 17 brought | advmod |
| 17 | brought | bring | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 12 married | conj |
| 18 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 20 number | det |
| 19 | right | right | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 20 number | amod |
| 20 | number | number | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 brought | obj |
| 21 | of | of | ADP | _ | 22 cakes | case |
| 22 | cakes | cake | NOUN | Number=Plur | 20 number | nmod |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 30 time | punct |
| 24 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 30 time | cc |
| 25 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 30 time | mark |
| 26 | this | this | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 30 time | nsubj |
| 27 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 30 time | cop |
| 28 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 30 time | det |
| 29 | first | first | ADJ | Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord | 30 time | amod |
| 30 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 said | obl |
| 31 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 33 failed | nsubj |
| 32 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 33 failed | aux |
| 33 | failed | fail | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 30 time | acl:relcl |
| 34 | to | to | PART | _ | 35 do | mark |
| 35 | do | do | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 33 failed | xcomp |
| 36 | so | so | ADV | _ | 38 begged | advmod |
| 37 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 38 begged | nsubj |
| 38 | begged | beg | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 35 do | advcl |
| 39 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 40 chief | det |
| 40 | chief | chief | NOUN | Number=Sing | 38 begged | obj |
| 41 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 43 punish | advmod |
| 42 | to | to | PART | _ | 43 punish | mark |
| 43 | punish | punish | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 38 begged | advcl |
| 44 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 43 punish | obj |
| 45 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 said | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | past | the head slave | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | marry | past · perfect · passive | Chief | ever | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient | ||||
| 3 | bring | past · perfect · passive | Chief's wife | the right number of cakes obj; always property | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP NP»: subject=Destination number=Theme | ||||
| 4 | is a | past | this | the first time | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | fail | past · perfect | Erim | the first time not said here | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | not do | to-infinitive | Erim not said here | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 7 | beg speech: request | past | Chief | the chief | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.Topic»: agent=Agent chief=Recipient | ||||
| 8 | not punish | to-infinitive | Chief not said here | Erim | vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=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/pg70959/20/10/