Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 4, sentence 8

Ever since that time it has been a custom, whenever a person is absent when a sick relative dies and wishes to bury him, he first of all finds out how much property there is before he buys things for the funeral, so as to be quite certain that there will be enough to pay for all the expenses of the burial.

Who acts: body, person, sick relative, much property, certain · What happens: be, die, wish, bury, find out, buy · To what, where: custom, relative, much property, things

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 (body, person, sick relative, much property), 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	Ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	root	root
2	since	since	ADP	_	4 time	case
3	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	4 time	det
4	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ever	obl
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 custom	nsubj
6	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 custom	aux
7	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	9 custom	cop
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 custom	det
9	custom	custom	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 time	acl:relcl
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 absent	punct
11	whenever	whenever	ADV	PronType=Rel	15 absent	advmod
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 person	det
13	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 absent	nsubj
14	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 absent	cop
15	absent	absent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 custom	conj
16	when	when	SCONJ	_	20 dies	mark
17	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	19 relative	det
18	sick	sick	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 relative	amod
19	relative	relative	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 dies	nsubj
20	dies	die	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 absent	advcl
21	and	and	CCONJ	_	22 wishes	cc
22	wishes	wish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	20 dies	conj
23	to	to	PART	_	24 bury	mark
24	bury	bury	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	22 wishes	xcomp
25	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	24 bury	obj
26	,	,	PUNCT	_	31 finds	punct
27	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	31 finds	nsubj
28	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	31 finds	advmod
29	of	of	ADP	_	30 all	case
30	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	28 first	obl
31	finds	find	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 absent	parataxis
32	out	out	ADP	_	31 finds	compound:prt
33	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	34 much	advmod
34	much	much	ADJ	Degree=Pos	35 property	amod
35	property	property	NOUN	Number=Sing	31 finds	obj
36	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	37 is	expl
37	is	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	35 property	acl:relcl
38	before	before	SCONJ	_	40 buys	mark
39	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	40 buys	nsubj
40	buys	buy	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	31 finds	advcl
41	things	thing	NOUN	Number=Plur	40 buys	obj
42	for	for	ADP	_	44 funeral	case
43	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	44 funeral	det
44	funeral	funeral	NOUN	Number=Sing	40 buys	obl
45	,	,	PUNCT	_	51 certain	punct
46	so	so	ADV	_	51 certain	advmod
47	as	as	SCONJ	_	51 certain	mark
48	to	to	PART	_	51 certain	mark
49	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	51 certain	cop
50	quite	quite	ADV	_	51 certain	advmod
51	certain	certain	ADJ	Degree=Pos	56 enough	nsubj
52	that	that	SCONJ	_	55 be	mark
53	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	55 be	expl
54	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	55 be	aux
55	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	56 enough	cop
56	enough	enough	ADJ	Degree=Pos	31 finds	conj
57	to	to	PART	_	58 pay	mark
58	pay	pay	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	56 enough	advcl
59	for	for	ADP	_	62 expenses	case
60	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	62 expenses	det:predet
61	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	62 expenses	det
62	expenses	expense	NOUN	Number=Plur	58 pay	obl
63	of	of	ADP	_	65 burial	case
64	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	65 burial	det
65	burial	burial	NOUN	Number=Sing	62 expenses	nmod
66	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ever	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	is a	present · perfect	body	a custom			tree rules
2	is	present	a person			absent, whenever property	tree rules
3	die	present	a sick relative				vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute
4	wish	present	a sick relative not said here				vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
5	bury not said to happen	to-infinitive	a sick relative not said here	relative			vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme
6	find out	present	person	much property		first property	vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent property=Topic
7	be	present	much property not said here		there		vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
8	buy	present	person	things		for the funeral	vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent thing=Theme for funeral=Beneficiary
9	is	to-infinitive				certain property	tree rules
10	is	infinitive	certain			enough property	tree rules
11	pay	to-infinitive	certain not said here			for all expenses of the burial	vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent for expense=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/pg70959/21/8/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 4, sentence 8

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 4, sentence 8