Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 3, sentence 75

At last he asked the head slave what had become of all the rods which his father formerly possessed, and whether his brother had spent them all.

Who acts: Odoggha, head slave, rods, brother · What happens: ask, become, father, possess, spend · To what, where: head slave, last, rods, father, slaves

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 (Odoggha, head slave, rods, brother), 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	At	at	ADP	_	2 last	case
2	last	last	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 asked	obl
3	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 asked	nsubj
4	asked	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 slave	det
6	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 slave	compound
7	slave	slave	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 asked	obj
8	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	10 become	nsubj
9	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 become	aux
10	become	become	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	7 slave	acl:relcl
11	of	of	ADP	_	14 rods	case
12	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	14 rods	det:predet
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 rods	det
14	rods	rod	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 become	xcomp
15	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	17 father	nsubj
16	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	17 father	nmod:poss
17	father	father	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 rods	nmod
18	formerly	formerly	ADV	_	19 possessed	advmod
19	possessed	possess	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	17 father	acl
20	,	,	PUNCT	_	26 spent	punct
21	and	and	CCONJ	_	26 spent	cc
22	whether	whether	SCONJ	_	26 spent	mark
23	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	24 brother	nmod:poss
24	brother	brother	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 spent	nsubj
25	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	26 spent	aux
26	spent	spend	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	4 asked	parataxis
27	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	26 spent	obj
28	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	27 them	nmod:unmarked
29	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 asked	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	ask speech: ask	past	Odoggha	the head slave	last		vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent slave=Recipient
2	become	past · perfect	the head slave	all rods			vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient
3	father		all rods			Odoggha nmod:poss	tree rules
4	possess	participle		Odoggha's father not said here		formerly property	vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot
5	spend	past · perfect	Odoggha's brother	slaves = slave			vn consume-66-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Asset

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/pg70959/20/75/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 3, sentence 75

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 3, sentence 75