Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 4, sentence 5
Odoggha Eyu then asked where his father was buried, and when he was shown the place he went back to the house and sat down, waiting until it became dark.
Who acts: Odoggha, Eyu, place · What happens: ask, bury, show, go back, sit down, wait · To what, where: father, Eyu · 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 (Odoggha, Eyu, place), 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 | Odoggha | Odoggha | PROPN | Number=Sing | 4 asked | nsubj |
| 2 | Eyu | Eyu | PROPN | Number=Sing | 1 Odoggha | flat |
| 3 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 4 asked | advmod |
| 4 | asked | ask | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 9 buried | advmod |
| 6 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 7 father | nmod:poss |
| 7 | father | father | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 buried | nsubj:pass |
| 8 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 buried | aux:pass |
| 9 | buried | bury | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 4 asked | ccomp |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 shown | punct |
| 11 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 15 shown | cc |
| 12 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 15 shown | advmod |
| 13 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 15 shown | nsubj |
| 14 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 15 shown | aux:pass |
| 15 | shown | show | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 4 asked | conj |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 place | det |
| 17 | place | place | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 shown | obj |
| 18 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 went | nsubj |
| 19 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 asked | parataxis |
| 20 | back | back | ADV | _ | 19 went | advmod |
| 21 | to | to | ADP | _ | 23 house | case |
| 22 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 house | det |
| 23 | house | house | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 went | obl |
| 24 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 25 sat | cc |
| 25 | sat | sit | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 19 went | conj |
| 26 | down | down | ADP | _ | 25 sat | compound:prt |
| 27 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 waiting | punct |
| 28 | waiting | wait | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 25 sat | advcl |
| 29 | until | until | SCONJ | _ | 31 became | mark |
| 30 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 31 became | nsubj |
| 31 | became | become | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 25 sat | advcl |
| 32 | dark | dark | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 31 became | xcomp |
| 33 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 asked | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ask speech: ask | past | Odoggha | then | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | ||||
| 2 | bury | past · passive | Eyu's father | vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme | |||||
| 3 | show | past · passive | Eyu | the place obj | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient place=Topic | ||||
| 4 | go back | past | Eyu | to the house result | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Patient to house=Result | ||||
| 5 | sit down | past | Eyu not said here | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 6 | wait | gerund | Eyu not said here | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 7 | become | past | place | dark property | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
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/pg70959/21/5/