Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 4, sentence 4
Then the owners of the five slaves who had been killed went to him and demanded payment, and the other people to whom he owed money worried him all day, until at last he resolved to kill himself rather than go home in shame and debt.
Who acts: owners, Eyu, other people · What happens: kill, go, demand, owe, worry, resolve · To what, where: five slaves, Eyu, payment, money, last, shame
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 (owners, Eyu, other people), 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 | Then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 12 went | advmod |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 owners | det |
| 3 | owners | owner | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 went | nsubj |
| 4 | of | of | ADP | _ | 7 slaves | case |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 slaves | det |
| 6 | five | five | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 7 slaves | nummod |
| 7 | slaves | slave | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 owners | nmod |
| 8 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 11 killed | nsubj:pass |
| 9 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 11 killed | aux |
| 10 | been | be | AUX | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 11 killed | aux:pass |
| 11 | killed | kill | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 7 slaves | acl:relcl |
| 12 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 13 | to | to | ADP | _ | 14 him | case |
| 14 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 12 went | obl |
| 15 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 16 demanded | cc |
| 16 | demanded | demand | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 went | conj |
| 17 | payment | payment | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 demanded | obj |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 worried | punct |
| 19 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 28 worried | cc |
| 20 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 22 people | det |
| 21 | other | other | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 22 people | amod |
| 22 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 28 worried | nsubj |
| 23 | to | to | ADP | _ | 24 whom | case |
| 24 | whom | whom | PRON | PronType=Rel | 22 people | nmod |
| 25 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 26 owed | nsubj |
| 26 | owed | owe | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 24 whom | acl:relcl |
| 27 | money | money | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 owed | obj |
| 28 | worried | worry | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 went | conj |
| 29 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 28 worried | obj |
| 30 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 31 day | det |
| 31 | day | day | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 worried | obl:unmarked |
| 32 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 37 resolved | punct |
| 33 | until | until | SCONJ | _ | 37 resolved | mark |
| 34 | at | at | ADP | _ | 35 last | case |
| 35 | last | last | NOUN | Number=Sing | 37 resolved | obl |
| 36 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 37 resolved | nsubj |
| 37 | resolved | resolve | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 28 worried | conj |
| 38 | to | to | PART | _ | 39 kill | mark |
| 39 | kill | kill | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 37 resolved | xcomp |
| 40 | himself | himself | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes | 39 kill | obj |
| 41 | rather | rather | ADV | ExtPos=CCONJ | 43 go | cc |
| 42 | than | than | ADP | _ | 41 rather | fixed |
| 43 | go | go | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 39 kill | conj |
| 44 | home | home | ADV | _ | 43 go | advmod |
| 45 | in | in | ADP | _ | 46 shame | case |
| 46 | shame | shame | NOUN | Number=Sing | 43 go | obl |
| 47 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 48 debt | cc |
| 48 | debt | debt | NOUN | Number=Sing | 46 shame | conj |
| 49 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 12 went | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | kill | past · perfect · passive | the five slaves | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme | |||||
| 2 | go | past | the owners of the five slaves | Eyu | then | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to he=Initial_Location | |||
| 3 | demand speech: request | past | the owners of the five slaves not said here | payment | vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme payment=Precondition | ||||
| 4 | owe | past | Eyu | money | vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent money=Theme | ||||
| 5 | worry | past | the other people | Eyu | day | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus he=Experiencer | |||
| 6 | resolve | past | Eyu | last | tree rules | ||||
| 7 | kill | to-infinitive | Eyu not said here | Eyu | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Theme | ||||
| 8 | go | infinitive | Eyu not said here | shame and debt | home property | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in shame=Location |
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/pg70959/21/4/