Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 3, sentence 68
Odaggha Eyu then bought five slaves, promising to pay for them after the funeral; these slaves he killed and placed in the grave with his brother.
Who acts: Odaggha, slaves · What happens: buy, promise, pay, kill, place · To what, where: five slaves, grave
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 (Odaggha, slaves), 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 | Odaggha | Odaggha | PROPN | Number=Sing | 4 bought | nsubj |
| 2 | Eyu | Eyu | PROPN | Number=Sing | 1 Odaggha | flat |
| 3 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 4 bought | advmod |
| 4 | bought | buy | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | five | five | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 6 slaves | nummod |
| 6 | slaves | slave | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 bought | obj |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 8 promising | punct |
| 8 | promising | promise | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 4 bought | advcl |
| 9 | to | to | PART | _ | 10 pay | mark |
| 10 | pay | pay | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 8 promising | xcomp |
| 11 | for | for | ADP | _ | 12 them | case |
| 12 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 10 pay | obl |
| 13 | after | after | ADP | _ | 15 funeral | case |
| 14 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 funeral | det |
| 15 | funeral | funeral | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 pay | obl |
| 16 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 20 killed | punct |
| 17 | these | this | DET | Number=Plur PronType=Dem | 18 slaves | det |
| 18 | slaves | slave | NOUN | Number=Plur | 20 killed | nsubj |
| 19 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 20 killed | nsubj |
| 20 | killed | kill | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 bought | conj |
| 21 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 22 placed | cc |
| 22 | placed | place | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 20 killed | conj |
| 23 | in | in | ADP | _ | 25 grave | case |
| 24 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 25 grave | det |
| 25 | grave | grave | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 placed | obl |
| 26 | with | with | ADP | _ | 28 brother | case |
| 27 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 28 brother | nmod:poss |
| 28 | brother | brother | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 placed | obl |
| 29 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 bought | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | buy | past | Odaggha | five slaves | then | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent slave=Theme | |||
| 2 | promise speech: promise | gerund | Odaggha not said here | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 3 | pay not said to happen | to-infinitive | Odaggha not said here | after the funeral | for slaves = slave | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent for they=Theme | |||
| 4 | kill | past | this slaves | Odaggha nsubj | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer | ||||
| 5 | place | participle | this slaves not said here | the grave | with Odaggha's brother | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent in grave=Destination |
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/pg70959/20/68/