Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 3, sentence 9
He did so, and told Chief Erim that his wife had only brought nine cakes of camwood instead of twelve, as she had been very busy in the house and had had a lot of other work to do.
Who acts: Chief, Erim, lot · What happens: do, tell, bring, be, have · To what, where: Chief, wife, house, lot · 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, Erim, lot), 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 did | nsubj |
| 2 | did | do | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | so | so | ADV | _ | 2 did | advmod |
| 4 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 6 told | punct |
| 5 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 6 told | cc |
| 6 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 did | parataxis |
| 7 | Chief | Chief | PROPN | Number=Sing | 6 told | iobj |
| 8 | Erim | Erim | PROPN | Number=Sing | 7 Chief | flat |
| 9 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 14 brought | mark |
| 10 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 11 wife | nmod:poss |
| 11 | wife | wife | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 brought | nsubj:pass |
| 12 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 14 brought | aux |
| 13 | only | only | ADV | _ | 14 brought | advmod |
| 14 | brought | bring | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 6 told | ccomp |
| 15 | nine | nine | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 16 cakes | nummod |
| 16 | cakes | cake | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 brought | obj |
| 17 | of | of | ADP | _ | 18 camwood | case |
| 18 | camwood | camwood | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 cakes | nmod |
| 19 | instead | instead | ADV | ExtPos=ADP | 21 twelve | case |
| 20 | of | of | ADP | _ | 19 instead | fixed |
| 21 | twelve | twelve | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 14 brought | obl |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 busy | punct |
| 23 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 28 busy | mark |
| 24 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 28 busy | nsubj |
| 25 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 28 busy | aux |
| 26 | been | be | AUX | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 28 busy | cop |
| 27 | very | very | ADV | _ | 28 busy | advmod |
| 28 | busy | busy | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 told | conj |
| 29 | in | in | ADP | _ | 31 house | case |
| 30 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 31 house | det |
| 31 | house | house | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 busy | obl |
| 32 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 34 had | cc |
| 33 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 34 had | aux |
| 34 | had | have | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 2 did | conj |
| 35 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 36 lot | det |
| 36 | lot | lot | NOUN | Number=Sing | 34 had | obj |
| 37 | of | of | ADP | _ | 39 work | case |
| 38 | other | other | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 39 work | amod |
| 39 | work | work | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 lot | nmod |
| 40 | to | to | PART | _ | 41 do | mark |
| 41 | do | do | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 34 had | xcomp |
| 42 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 did | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | do | past | Chief | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 2 | tell speech: assert | past | Chief | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent chief=Recipient clause=Topic | |||||
| 3 | bring | past · perfect · passive | Chief's wife | instead twelve; nine cakes of camwood obj | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP NP»: subject=Destination cake=Theme | ||||
| 4 | is | past · perfect | Erim | the house | busy property | tree rules | |||
| 5 | have | past · perfect | Chief not said here | a lot of other work | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | do | to-infinitive | a lot of other work not said here | vn act-114-1 «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/pg70959/20/9/