Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 4, sentence 36
But, although the bush buck laughed at the idea, he had to consent to run, and the race was arranged for the following day along the usual track, and the first home to be the winner.
Who acts: bush buck, FROG · What happens: laugh, have, consent, run, arrange, follow · To what, where: idea, race, winner
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 (bush buck, FROG), 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 | But | but | CCONJ | _ | 13 had | cc |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 But | punct |
| 3 | although | although | SCONJ | _ | 7 laughed | mark |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 buck | det |
| 5 | bush | bush | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 buck | compound |
| 6 | buck | buck | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 laughed | nsubj |
| 7 | laughed | laugh | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 13 had | advcl |
| 8 | at | at | ADP | _ | 10 idea | case |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 idea | det |
| 10 | idea | idea | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 laughed | obl |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 7 laughed | punct |
| 12 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 13 had | nsubj |
| 13 | had | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 14 | to | to | PART | _ | 15 consent | mark |
| 15 | consent | consent | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 13 had | xcomp |
| 16 | to | to | PART | _ | 17 run | mark |
| 17 | run | run | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 15 consent | xcomp |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 23 arranged | punct |
| 19 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 23 arranged | cc |
| 20 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 21 race | det |
| 21 | race | race | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 arranged | nsubj:pass |
| 22 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 23 arranged | aux:pass |
| 23 | arranged | arrange | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 13 had | conj |
| 24 | for | for | ADP | _ | 27 day | case |
| 25 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 27 day | det |
| 26 | following | follow | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 27 day | amod |
| 27 | day | day | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 arranged | obl |
| 28 | along | along | ADP | _ | 31 track | case |
| 29 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 31 track | det |
| 30 | usual | usual | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 31 track | amod |
| 31 | track | track | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 day | nmod |
| 32 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 36 home | punct |
| 33 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 36 home | cc |
| 34 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 36 home | det |
| 35 | first | first | ADJ | Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord | 36 home | amod |
| 36 | home | home | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 arranged | obl |
| 37 | to | to | PART | _ | 40 winner | mark |
| 38 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 40 winner | cop |
| 39 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 40 winner | det |
| 40 | winner | winner | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 home | appos |
| 41 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 13 had | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | laugh | past | the bush buck | the idea | vn nonverbal_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 2 | have | past | FROG | tree rules | |||||
| 3 | consent | to-infinitive | FROG not said here | vn acquiesce-95.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | |||||
| 4 | run | to-infinitive | FROG not said here | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 5 | arrange | past · passive | the race | day | the first home obl | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Product | |||
| 6 | follow | gerund | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||||
| 7 | is a | to-infinitive | the winner | 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/pg70959/21/36/