Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 4, sentence 16

At last some of the young men, who were very anxious to possess the pretty daughter of the bush buck as a wife, asked the father to reduce the amount of dowry to such an amount as they would be able to pay.

Who acts: young men, some, animals · What happens: be, possess, ask, reduce, pay, amount · To what, where: pretty daughter, father, amount, dowry

This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (young men, some, animals), 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	_	3 some	case
2	last	last	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 some	amod
3	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	26 asked	nsubj
4	of	of	ADP	_	7 men	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 men	det
6	young	young	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 men	amod
7	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 some	nmod
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 anxious	punct
9	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 anxious	nsubj
10	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 anxious	cop
11	very	very	ADV	_	12 anxious	advmod
12	anxious	anxious	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 men	parataxis
13	to	to	PART	_	14 possess	mark
14	possess	possess	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 anxious	csubj
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 daughter	det
16	pretty	pretty	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 daughter	amod
17	daughter	daughter	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 possess	obj
18	of	of	ADP	_	21 buck	case
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 buck	det
20	bush	bush	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 buck	compound
21	buck	buck	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 daughter	nmod
22	as	as	ADP	_	24 wife	case
23	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	24 wife	det
24	wife	wife	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 buck	nmod
25	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 some	punct
26	asked	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
27	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	28 father	det
28	father	father	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 asked	obj
29	to	to	PART	_	30 reduce	mark
30	reduce	reduce	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	26 asked	xcomp
31	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	32 amount	det
32	amount	amount	NOUN	Number=Sing	30 reduce	obj
33	of	of	ADP	_	34 dowry	case
34	dowry	dowry	NOUN	Number=Sing	32 amount	nmod
35	to	to	ADP	_	38 amount	case
36	such	such	DET	PronType=Ind	38 amount	det:predet
37	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	38 amount	det
38	amount	amount	NOUN	Number=Sing	30 reduce	obl
39	as	as	SCONJ	_	43 able	mark
40	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	43 able	nsubj
41	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	43 able	aux
42	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	43 able	cop
43	able	able	ADJ	Degree=Pos	30 reduce	advcl
44	to	to	PART	_	45 pay	mark
45	pay	pay	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	43 able	xcomp
46	.	.	PUNCT	_	26 asked	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	is	past	the young men			anxious property	tree rules
2	possess	to-infinitive		the pretty daughter of the bush buck as a wife			vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot daughter=Theme
3	ask speech: ask	past	some of the young men		the father		vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S_INF»: agent=Agent father=Recipient clause=Topic
4	reduce not said to happen	to-infinitive	some of the young men not said here	the amount of dowry		to such amount goal	vn limit-76 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Causer amount=Patient to amount=Goal
5	is	would	animals = animal			able property	tree rules
6	pay	to-infinitive	animals = animal not said here				vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
7	amount			dowry			nom amount «possession transitive»: of=patient

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/pg70959/21/16/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 4, sentence 16

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 4, sentence 16