Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 3, sentence 2
The chief was very fond of both his sons, and never allowed them to do any work on the farm.
Who acts: chief, wives · What happens: be, not allow, do · To what, where: wives, work, farm
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 (chief, wives), 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 | 2 chief | det |
| 2 | chief | chief | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 fond | nsubj |
| 3 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 fond | cop |
| 4 | very | very | ADV | _ | 5 fond | advmod |
| 5 | fond | fond | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 6 | of | of | ADP | _ | 9 sons | case |
| 7 | both | both | CCONJ | _ | 9 sons | cc:preconj |
| 8 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 9 sons | nmod:poss |
| 9 | sons | son | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 fond | obl |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 allowed | punct |
| 11 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 13 allowed | cc |
| 12 | never | never | ADV | PronType=Neg | 13 allowed | advmod |
| 13 | allowed | allow | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 fond | conj |
| 14 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 13 allowed | obj |
| 15 | to | to | PART | _ | 16 do | mark |
| 16 | do | do | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 13 allowed | xcomp |
| 17 | any | any | DET | PronType=Ind | 18 work | det |
| 18 | work | work | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 do | obj |
| 19 | on | on | ADP | _ | 21 farm | case |
| 20 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 21 farm | det |
| 21 | farm | farm | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 do | obl |
| 22 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 fond | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | the chief | of Chief's sons; fond property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | not allow | past | the chief not said here | wives = wife | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: agent=Causer they=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality | ||||
| 3 | do not said to happen | to-infinitive | wives = wife not said here | any work | the farm | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent work=Eventuality |
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/pg70959/20/2/