Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 4, sentence 17

As the bush buck was very fond and proud of his daughter and did not want to part with her, he refused to reduce the dowry, but told the young men and animals that he would give them all another chance of winning his daughter, and that was, if any one could beat him in a race he would hand his daughter over to the winner as his wife without any dowry at all.

Who acts: man, chance, that · What happens: be, not want, refuse, not reduce, tell, give · To what, where: part, dowry, young men, chance, animals, daughter · 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 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, chance, that), 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	As	as	ADP	_	4 buck	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 buck	det
3	bush	bush	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 buck	compound
4	buck	buck	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 fond	obl
5	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 fond	cop
6	very	very	ADV	_	7 fond	advmod
7	fond	fond	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 proud	cc
9	proud	proud	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 fond	conj
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 daughter	case
11	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 daughter	nmod:poss
12	daughter	daughter	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 proud	obl
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 want	cc
14	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	16 want	aux
15	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	16 want	advmod
16	want	want	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 fond	conj
17	to	to	PART	_	18 part	mark
18	part	part	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 want	xcomp
19	with	with	ADP	_	20 her	case
20	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 want	obl
21	,	,	PUNCT	_	23 refused	punct
22	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	23 refused	nsubj
23	refused	refuse	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 fond	parataxis
24	to	to	PART	_	25 reduce	mark
25	reduce	reduce	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	23 refused	xcomp
26	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	27 dowry	det
27	dowry	dowry	NOUN	Number=Sing	25 reduce	obj
28	,	,	PUNCT	_	30 told	punct
29	but	but	CCONJ	_	30 told	cc
30	told	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	23 refused	conj
31	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	33 men	det
32	young	young	ADJ	Degree=Pos	33 men	amod
33	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	30 told	obj
34	and	and	CCONJ	_	35 animals	cc
35	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	33 men	conj
36	that	that	SCONJ	_	39 give	mark
37	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	39 give	nsubj
38	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	39 give	aux
39	give	give	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	30 told	ccomp
40	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	39 give	iobj
41	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	43 chance	det:predet
42	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	43 chance	det
43	chance	chance	NOUN	Number=Sing	39 give	obj
44	of	of	SCONJ	_	45 winning	mark
45	winning	win	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	43 chance	acl
46	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	47 daughter	nmod:poss
47	daughter	daughter	NOUN	Number=Sing	45 winning	obj
48	,	,	PUNCT	_	57 beat	punct
49	and	and	CCONJ	_	57 beat	cc
50	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	57 beat	nsubj
51	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	57 beat	cop
52	,	,	PUNCT	_	57 beat	punct
53	if	if	SCONJ	_	57 beat	mark
54	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	55 one	det
55	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	57 beat	nsubj
56	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	57 beat	aux
57	beat	beat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 fond	parataxis
58	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	57 beat	obj
59	in	in	ADP	_	61 race	case
60	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	61 race	det
61	race	race	NOUN	Number=Sing	64 hand	obl
62	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	64 hand	nsubj
63	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	64 hand	aux
64	hand	hand	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	57 beat	advcl
65	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	66 daughter	nmod:poss
66	daughter	daughter	NOUN	Number=Sing	64 hand	obj
67	over	over	ADV	_	70 winner	advmod
68	to	to	ADP	_	70 winner	case
69	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	70 winner	det
70	winner	winner	NOUN	Number=Sing	64 hand	obl
71	as	as	ADP	_	73 wife	case
72	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	73 wife	nmod:poss
73	wife	wife	NOUN	Number=Sing	70 winner	nmod
74	without	without	ADP	_	76 dowry	case
75	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	76 dowry	det
76	dowry	dowry	NOUN	Number=Sing	64 hand	obl
77	at	at	ADP	_	78 all	case
78	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	76 dowry	nmod
79	.	.	PUNCT	_	7 fond	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	other	roles by
1	is	past					as the bush buck; fond property	tree rules
2	be						of man's daughter	tree rules
3	not want	past · do-support		part			with BUCK	vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot
4	refuse	past	man					vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
5	not reduce	to-infinitive	man not said here	the dowry				vn limit-76 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer dowry=Patient
6	tell speech: assert	past	man not said here		the young men and animals			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent man=Recipient clause=Topic
7	give	would	man	all chance	animals = animal			vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Recipient chance=Theme
8	win	gerund	all chance not said here	man's daughter				vn succeed-74-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent daughter=Eventuality
9	is a condition, not said to happen	could · past	that				any one nsubj; man obj; beat property	tree rules
10	hand	would	man	man's daughter		a race	to the winner as man's wife; without any dowry at all	vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent daughter=Theme to winner=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/pg70959/21/17/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 4, sentence 17

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 4, sentence 17