Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 4, sentence 40
When he had gone about half the distance the bush buck called out, “Where are you, frog?” and one of the frogs at once answered, “I am here, are you tired of running?”
Who acts: FROG, you, one, I · What happens: go about, call out, be, answer, run · To what, where: distance, bush buck, frog · 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 (FROG, you, one, I), 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 | When | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 4 gone | advmod |
| 2 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 gone | nsubj |
| 3 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 gone | aux |
| 4 | gone | go | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 5 | about | about | ADV | _ | 6 half | advmod |
| 6 | half | half | DET | NumForm=Word NumType=Frac PronType=Ind | 8 distance | det:predet |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 distance | det |
| 8 | distance | distance | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 gone | obl |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 buck | det |
| 10 | bush | bush | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 buck | compound |
| 11 | buck | buck | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 gone | obj |
| 12 | called | call | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 11 buck | acl |
| 13 | out | out | ADP | _ | 12 called | compound:prt |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 frog | punct |
| 15 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 20 frog | punct |
| 16 | Where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 20 frog | advmod |
| 17 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 20 frog | cop |
| 18 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 20 frog | nsubj |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 frog | punct |
| 20 | frog | frog | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 gone | parataxis |
| 21 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 20 frog | punct |
| 22 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 4 gone | punct |
| 23 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 30 answered | cc |
| 24 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 30 answered | nsubj |
| 25 | of | of | ADP | _ | 27 frogs | case |
| 26 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 27 frogs | det |
| 27 | frogs | frog | NOUN | Number=Plur | 24 one | nmod |
| 28 | at | at | ADP | _ | 29 once | case |
| 29 | once | once | ADV | NumForm=Word NumType=Mult | 30 answered | obl |
| 30 | answered | answer | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 gone | parataxis |
| 31 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 35 here | punct |
| 32 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 35 here | punct |
| 33 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 35 here | nsubj |
| 34 | am | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 35 here | cop |
| 35 | here | here | ADV | PronType=Dem | 30 answered | conj |
| 36 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 39 tired | punct |
| 37 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 39 tired | cop |
| 38 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 39 tired | nsubj |
| 39 | tired | tired | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 35 here | parataxis |
| 40 | of | of | SCONJ | _ | 41 running | mark |
| 41 | running | run | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 39 tired | advcl |
| 42 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 41 running | punct |
| 43 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 30 answered | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | go about | past · perfect | FROG | half distance | the bush buck obj | tree rules | |||
| 2 | call out speech: assert | participle | the bush buck not said here | vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 3 | is a in a quote | present | you | frog | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | answer speech: ask | past | one of the frogs | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 5 | is in a quote | present | I | here property | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | is in a quote | present | you | tired property | tree rules | ||||
| 7 | run in a quote | gerund | you not said here | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
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/pg70959/21/40/