Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 4, sentence 7
His debtors, who were looking everywhere for him, could not find him, and thought he must have run away, but two days later his dead body was discovered hanging to the tree.
Who acts: debtors, Eyu · What happens: look, not find, think, run away, discover, hang · To what, where: Eyu, dead body · 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 (debtors, Eyu), 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 | His | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 2 debtors | nmod:poss |
| 2 | debtors | debtor | NOUN | Number=Plur | 13 find | nsubj |
| 3 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 6 looking | punct |
| 4 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 6 looking | nsubj |
| 5 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 looking | aux |
| 6 | looking | look | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 2 debtors | acl |
| 7 | everywhere | everywhere | ADV | PronType=Tot | 6 looking | advmod |
| 8 | for | for | ADP | _ | 9 him | case |
| 9 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 6 looking | obl |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 2 debtors | punct |
| 11 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 13 find | aux |
| 12 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 13 find | advmod |
| 13 | find | find | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 14 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 13 find | obj |
| 15 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 thought | punct |
| 16 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 thought | cc |
| 17 | thought | think | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 13 find | parataxis |
| 18 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 21 run | nsubj |
| 19 | must | must | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 21 run | aux |
| 20 | have | have | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 21 run | aux |
| 21 | run | run | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 17 thought | ccomp |
| 22 | away | away | ADV | _ | 21 run | advmod |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 32 discovered | punct |
| 24 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 32 discovered | cc |
| 25 | two | two | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 26 days | nummod |
| 26 | days | day | NOUN | Number=Plur | 27 later | obl:unmarked |
| 27 | later | late | ADV | Degree=Cmp | 32 discovered | advmod |
| 28 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 30 body | nmod:poss |
| 29 | dead | dead | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 30 body | amod |
| 30 | body | body | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 discovered | nsubj:pass |
| 31 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 32 discovered | aux:pass |
| 32 | discovered | discover | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 17 thought | conj |
| 33 | hanging | hang | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 32 discovered | xcomp |
| 34 | to | to | ADP | _ | 36 tree | case |
| 35 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 36 tree | det |
| 36 | tree | tree | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 hanging | obl |
| 37 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 13 find | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | look | past · progressive | Eyu's debtors | for Eyu; everywhere property | vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent for he=Theme | ||||
| 2 | not find | could | Eyu's debtors | Eyu | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Topic | ||||
| 3 | think speech: other | past | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | ||||||
| 4 | run away | must · perfect | Eyu | away property | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 5 | discover | past · passive | Eyu's dead body | late property | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | hang | gerund | to the tree | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
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/pg70959/21/7/