Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxix.--why a Python Never Swallows a Tortoise., sentence 20
If you will give me the palm nuts I will allow you to eat all the other animals except our king the elephant.”
Who acts: you, I · What happens: give, allow, eat · To what, where: palm nuts, me, you, other animals
This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxix.--why a Python Never Swallows a Tortoise.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (you, 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 | If | if | SCONJ | _ | 4 give | mark |
| 2 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 4 give | nsubj |
| 3 | will | will | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 4 give | aux |
| 4 | give | give | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 11 allow | advcl |
| 5 | me | I | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 4 give | iobj |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 nuts | det |
| 7 | palm | palm | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 nuts | compound |
| 8 | nuts | nut | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 give | obj |
| 9 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 11 allow | nsubj |
| 10 | will | will | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 11 allow | aux |
| 11 | allow | allow | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 12 | you | you | PRON | Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs | 11 allow | iobj |
| 13 | to | to | PART | _ | 14 eat | mark |
| 14 | eat | eat | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 11 allow | xcomp |
| 15 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 18 animals | det:predet |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 18 animals | det |
| 17 | other | other | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 18 animals | amod |
| 18 | animals | animal | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 eat | obj |
| 19 | except | except | ADP | _ | 21 king | case |
| 20 | our | our | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 21 king | nmod:poss |
| 21 | king | king | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 animals | nmod |
| 22 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 elephant | det |
| 23 | elephant | elephant | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 eat | obj |
| 24 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 11 allow | punct |
| 25 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 11 allow | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | give a condition, not said to happen | future | you | the palm nuts | me | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient nut=Theme | |||
| 2 | allow | future | I | you | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: agent=Causer you=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality | ||||
| 3 | eat not said to happen | to-infinitive | I not said here | all other animals | except our king; the elephant obj | tree rules |
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/pg70959/22/20/