Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 4, sentence 18
In making this offer the bush buck thought he was perfectly safe, as it was well known that he was a faster runner than anyone in the country.
Who acts: this, making, man · What happens: make, offer, think, be, know · To what, where: this, bush buck, dowry, faster runner · 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 (this, making, man), 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 | In | in | SCONJ | _ | 2 making | mark |
| 2 | making | make | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 8 thought | csubj |
| 3 | this | this | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 2 making | obj |
| 4 | offer | offer | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 2 making | xcomp |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 buck | det |
| 6 | bush | bush | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 buck | compound |
| 7 | buck | buck | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 offer | obj |
| 8 | thought | think | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 9 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 12 safe | nsubj |
| 10 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 safe | cop |
| 11 | perfectly | perfectly | ADV | _ | 12 safe | advmod |
| 12 | safe | safe | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 thought | ccomp |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 known | punct |
| 14 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 18 known | mark |
| 15 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 18 known | nsubj:pass |
| 16 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 18 known | aux:pass |
| 17 | well | well | ADV | Degree=Pos | 18 known | advmod |
| 18 | known | know | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 8 thought | conj |
| 19 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 24 runner | mark |
| 20 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 24 runner | nsubj |
| 21 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 24 runner | cop |
| 22 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 24 runner | det |
| 23 | faster | fast | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 24 runner | amod |
| 24 | runner | runner | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 known | xcomp |
| 25 | than | than | ADP | _ | 26 anyone | case |
| 26 | anyone | anyone | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Ind | 24 runner | nmod |
| 27 | in | in | ADP | _ | 29 country | case |
| 28 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 29 country | det |
| 29 | country | country | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 anyone | nmod |
| 30 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 thought | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | make | gerund | this | tree rules | |||||
| 2 | offer | infinitive | this not said here | the bush buck | vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent buck=Theme | ||||
| 3 | think speech: other | past | making | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 4 | is | past | man | perfectly, safe property | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | know | past · passive | dowry | well property | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Stimulus | ||||
| 6 | is a | past | man | a faster runner | than anyone in the country | tree rules |
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/pg70959/21/18/