Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 3, sentence 56

He told all the slaves to be quiet and not to tell anyone until he gave them permission, as the head slave knew that directly Odoggha Eyu heard of his brother’s death he would at once come to Inkum to keep the funeral and take all the goods which were formerly his father’s.

Who acts: Oga, slaves, head slave, Odoggha, goods, brother · What happens: tell, be, not tell, give, know, hear · To what, where: slaves, anyone, permission, Inkum, funeral, goods · 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 (Oga, slaves, head slave, Odoggha), 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	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 told	nsubj
2	told	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	5 slaves	det:predet
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 slaves	det
5	slaves	slave	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 told	obj
6	to	to	PART	_	8 quiet	mark
7	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	8 quiet	cop
8	quiet	quiet	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 told	xcomp
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 tell	cc
10	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	12 tell	advmod
11	to	to	PART	_	12 tell	mark
12	tell	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 told	conj
13	anyone	anyone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	12 tell	obj
14	until	until	SCONJ	_	16 gave	mark
15	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 gave	nsubj
16	gave	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 tell	ccomp
17	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 gave	iobj
18	permission	permission	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 gave	obj
19	,	,	PUNCT	_	24 knew	punct
20	as	as	SCONJ	_	24 knew	mark
21	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	23 slave	det
22	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 slave	compound
23	slave	slave	NOUN	Number=Sing	24 knew	nsubj
24	knew	know	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 told	parataxis
25	that	that	SCONJ	_	29 heard	mark
26	directly	directly	ADV	_	27 Odoggha	advmod
27	Odoggha	Odoggha	PROPN	Number=Sing	29 heard	nsubj
28	Eyu	Eyu	PROPN	Number=Sing	27 Odoggha	flat
29	heard	hear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	39 come	advcl
30	of	of	ADP	_	34 death	case
31	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	32 brother	nmod:poss
32	brother	brother	NOUN	Number=Sing	34 death	nmod:poss
33	’s	's	PART	_	32 brother	case
34	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	29 heard	obl
35	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	36 would	nsubj
36	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	34 death	acl:relcl
37	at	at	ADP	_	38 once	case
38	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	39 come	obl
39	come	come	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	24 knew	ccomp
40	to	to	ADP	_	41 Inkum	case
41	Inkum	Inkum	PROPN	Number=Sing	39 come	obl
42	to	to	PART	_	43 keep	mark
43	keep	keep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	39 come	advcl
44	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	45 funeral	det
45	funeral	funeral	NOUN	Number=Sing	43 keep	obj
46	and	and	CCONJ	_	47 take	cc
47	take	take	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	43 keep	conj
48	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	50 goods	det:predet
49	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	50 goods	det
50	goods	goods	NOUN	Number=Ptan	47 take	obj
51	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	55 father	nsubj
52	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	55 father	cop
53	formerly	formerly	ADV	_	55 father	advmod
54	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	55 father	nmod:poss
55	father	father	NOUN	Number=Sing	50 goods	nmod
56	’s	's	PART	_	55 father	case
57	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 told	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	other	roles by
1	tell speech: assert	past	Oga	all slaves				vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent slave=Recipient
2	is not said to happen	to-infinitive	all slaves not said here				quiet property	tree rules
3	not tell speech: assert	to-infinitive	Oga not said here	anyone				vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent anyone=Recipient clause=Topic
4	give	past	Oga	permission	slaves = slave			vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Recipient permission=Theme
5	know	past	the head slave					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
6	hear	past	Odoggha				of Oga's brother's death	vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer of death=Stimulus
7	come	infinitive				Inkum		vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to inkum=Initial_Location
8	keep	to-infinitive		the funeral				vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent funeral=Theme
9	take	infinitive		all goods				vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent goods=Theme
10	is	past	all goods				's Oga's father; Oga nmod:poss; formerly property	tree rules
11	die		Oga's brother					nom death «event intransitive»: poss=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/pg70959/20/56/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 3, sentence 56

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 3, sentence 56