Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 3, sentence 43

The first woman slave who failed to bring her twelve cakes of camwood was given forty lashes instead of fifty, but Oga Erim said that he was young yet, but that as he got older he would be much more severe and punish the people far more cruelly than his father had ever done, as he intended to be very wealthy, and they would have to work much harder than they had done during his father’s lifetime unless they wished to be badly punished.

Who acts: first woman slave, Oga, that, father, slaves · What happens: fail, not bring, give, say, be, get · To what, where: twelve cakes, body, first woman slave, people · 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 (first woman slave, Oga, that, father), 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	4 slave	det
2	first	first	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	4 slave	amod
3	woman	woman	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 slave	compound
4	slave	slave	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 given	nsubj:pass
5	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 failed	nsubj
6	failed	fail	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 slave	acl:relcl
7	to	to	PART	_	8 bring	mark
8	bring	bring	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 failed	xcomp
9	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 bring	obj
10	twelve	twelve	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	11 cakes	nummod
11	cakes	cake	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 bring	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 camwood	case
13	camwood	camwood	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 cakes	nmod
14	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	15 given	aux:pass
15	given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
16	forty	forty	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	17 lashes	nummod
17	lashes	lash	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 given	obj
18	instead	instead	ADV	ExtPos=ADP	20 fifty	case
19	of	of	ADP	_	18 instead	fixed
20	fifty	fifty	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	15 given	obl
21	,	,	PUNCT	_	25 said	punct
22	but	but	CCONJ	_	25 said	cc
23	Oga	Oga	PROPN	Number=Sing	25 said	nsubj
24	Erim	Erim	PROPN	Number=Sing	23 Oga	flat
25	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	15 given	conj
26	that	that	SCONJ	_	29 young	mark
27	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	29 young	nsubj
28	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	29 young	cop
29	young	young	ADJ	Degree=Pos	25 said	ccomp
30	yet	yet	ADV	_	29 young	advmod
31	,	,	PUNCT	_	36 got	punct
32	but	but	CCONJ	_	36 got	cc
33	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	36 got	nsubj
34	as	as	SCONJ	_	36 got	mark
35	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	36 got	nsubj
36	got	get	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	15 given	parataxis
37	older	old	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	36 got	xcomp
38	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	43 severe	nsubj
39	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	43 severe	aux
40	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	43 severe	cop
41	much	much	ADV	_	42 more	advmod
42	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	43 severe	advmod
43	severe	severe	ADJ	Degree=Pos	37 older	parataxis
44	and	and	CCONJ	_	45 punish	cc
45	punish	punish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	36 got	conj
46	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	47 people	det
47	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	45 punish	obj
48	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	49 more	advmod
49	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	50 cruelly	advmod
50	cruelly	cruelly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	45 punish	conj
51	than	than	SCONJ	_	56 done	mark
52	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	53 father	nmod:poss
53	father	father	NOUN	Number=Sing	56 done	nsubj
54	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	56 done	aux
55	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	56 done	advmod
56	done	do	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	50 cruelly	advcl
57	,	,	PUNCT	_	60 intended	punct
58	as	as	SCONJ	_	60 intended	mark
59	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	60 intended	nsubj
60	intended	intend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	56 done	advcl
61	to	to	PART	_	64 wealthy	mark
62	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	64 wealthy	cop
63	very	very	ADV	_	64 wealthy	advmod
64	wealthy	wealthy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	60 intended	xcomp
65	,	,	PUNCT	_	69 have	punct
66	and	and	CCONJ	_	69 have	cc
67	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	69 have	nsubj
68	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	69 have	aux
69	have	have	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	45 punish	parataxis
70	to	to	PART	_	71 work	mark
71	work	work	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	69 have	xcomp
72	much	much	ADV	_	73 harder	advmod
73	harder	hard	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	71 work	parataxis
74	than	than	SCONJ	_	77 done	mark
75	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	77 done	nsubj
76	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	77 done	aux
77	done	do	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	73 harder	advcl
78	during	during	ADP	_	82 lifetime	case
79	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	80 father	nmod:poss
80	father	father	NOUN	Number=Sing	82 lifetime	nmod:poss
81	’s	's	PART	_	80 father	case
82	lifetime	lifetime	NOUN	Number=Sing	77 done	obl
83	unless	unless	SCONJ	_	85 wished	mark
84	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	85 wished	nsubj
85	wished	wish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	77 done	advcl
86	to	to	PART	_	89 punished	mark
87	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	89 punished	aux:pass
88	badly	badly	ADV	Degree=Pos	89 punished	advmod
89	punished	punish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	85 wished	ccomp
90	.	.	PUNCT	_	15 given	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	when	other	roles by
1	fail	past	the first woman slave					vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
2	not bring	to-infinitive	the first woman slave not said here	twelve cakes of camwood	body			vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Agent she=Destination cake=Theme
3	give	past · passive		the first woman slave			instead fifty; forty lashes obj	vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient lash=Theme
4	say speech: assert	past	Oga					vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
5	is	past	Oga			yet	young property	tree rules
6	get	past	that				Oga nsubj; old property	vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer
7	is	would	Oga				severe property	tree rules
8	punish	present	that not said here	the people				vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent people=Patient
9	do	past · perfect	Oga's father			ever		vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
10	intend	past	father					vn intend-61.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent
11	is not said to happen	to-infinitive	father not said here				wealthy property	tree rules
12	have	would	slaves = slave					tree rules
13	work	to-infinitive	slaves = slave not said here					vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent
14	do	past · perfect	slaves = slave			during Oga's father's lifetime		vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
15	wish a condition, not said to happen	past	slaves = slave					vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
16	punish not said to happen	to-infinitive · passive					badly property	vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP»

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/pg70959/20/43/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 3, sentence 43

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 3, sentence 43