Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 3, sentence 32
Chief Erim agreed to this, and told his head slave to take two boxes of rods and some fowls as a present to the ju-ju man.
Who acts: Chief, some · What happens: agree, tell, take, fowl · To what, where: head slave, two boxes · 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 (Chief, some), 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 | Chief | Chief | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 agreed | nsubj |
| 2 | Erim | Erim | PROPN | Number=Sing | 1 Chief | flat |
| 3 | agreed | agree | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | to | to | ADP | _ | 5 this | case |
| 5 | this | this | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 3 agreed | obl |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 8 told | punct |
| 7 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 8 told | cc |
| 8 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 agreed | parataxis |
| 9 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 11 slave | nmod:poss |
| 10 | head | head | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 slave | compound |
| 11 | slave | slave | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 told | iobj |
| 12 | to | to | PART | _ | 13 take | mark |
| 13 | take | take | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 8 told | xcomp |
| 14 | two | two | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 15 boxes | nummod |
| 15 | boxes | box | NOUN | Number=Plur | 13 take | obj |
| 16 | of | of | ADP | _ | 17 rods | case |
| 17 | rods | rod | NOUN | Number=Plur | 15 boxes | nmod |
| 18 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 20 fowls | cc |
| 19 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 20 fowls | nsubj |
| 20 | fowls | fowl | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 8 told | conj |
| 21 | as | as | ADP | _ | 23 present | case |
| 22 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 23 present | det |
| 23 | present | present | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 fowls | obl |
| 24 | to | to | ADP | _ | 29 man | case |
| 25 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 29 man | det |
| 26 | ju | ju | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 ju | compound |
| 27 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 26 ju | punct |
| 28 | ju | ju | NOUN | Number=Sing | 29 man | compound |
| 29 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 fowls | obl |
| 30 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 agreed | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | agree speech: agree | past | Chief | to this | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 2 | tell speech: assert | past | Chief's head slave | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent slave=Recipient clause=Topic | |||||
| 3 | take not said to happen | to-infinitive | two boxes of rods | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent box=Theme | |||||
| 4 | fowl | present | some | as a present; to the ju man | vn berry-13.7 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
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/pg70959/20/32/