Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxx.--the Game of Hide-and-seek As Played By the Hawk and the Bush Cow., sentence 24
The hawk very soon caught sight of the bush cow rushing about through the forest, so he flew down very quietly behind the bush cow and perched himself on the horns of the bush cow quite softly.
Who acts: hawk, bush cow · What happens: catch, rush, fly down, perch, sight · To what, where: sight, forest, antelope, horns, bush cow
This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxx.--the Game of Hide-and-seek As Played By the Hawk and the Bush Cow.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (hawk, bush cow), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 hawk | det |
| 2 | hawk | hawk | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 flew | nsubj |
| 3 | very | very | ADV | _ | 4 soon | advmod |
| 4 | soon | soon | ADV | Degree=Pos | 5 caught | advmod |
| 5 | caught | catch | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 2 hawk | acl |
| 6 | sight | sight | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 caught | obj |
| 7 | of | of | ADP | _ | 10 cow | case |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 cow | det |
| 9 | bush | bush | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 cow | compound |
| 10 | cow | cow | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 sight | nmod |
| 11 | rushing | rush | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 10 cow | acl |
| 12 | about | about | ADV | _ | 11 rushing | advmod |
| 13 | through | through | ADP | _ | 15 forest | case |
| 14 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 forest | det |
| 15 | forest | forest | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 rushing | obl |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 flew | punct |
| 17 | so | so | ADV | _ | 19 flew | advmod |
| 18 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 flew | nsubj |
| 19 | flew | fly | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 20 | down | down | ADP | _ | 19 flew | compound:prt |
| 21 | very | very | ADV | _ | 22 quietly | advmod |
| 22 | quietly | quietly | ADV | _ | 19 flew | advmod |
| 23 | behind | behind | ADP | _ | 26 cow | case |
| 24 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 26 cow | det |
| 25 | bush | bush | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 cow | compound |
| 26 | cow | cow | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 flew | obl |
| 27 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 28 perched | cc |
| 28 | perched | perch | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 19 flew | conj |
| 29 | himself | himself | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes | 28 perched | obj |
| 30 | on | on | ADP | _ | 32 horns | case |
| 31 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 32 horns | det |
| 32 | horns | horn | NOUN | Number=Plur | 28 perched | obl |
| 33 | of | of | ADP | _ | 36 cow | case |
| 34 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 36 cow | det |
| 35 | bush | bush | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 cow | compound |
| 36 | cow | cow | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 horns | nmod |
| 37 | quite | quite | ADV | _ | 38 softly | advmod |
| 38 | softly | softly | ADV | _ | 28 perched | advmod |
| 39 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 19 flew | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | catch | participle | the hawk not said here | sight of the bush cow | soon property | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sight=Theme | |||
| 2 | rush | gerund | the bush cow not said here | the forest | about property | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through forest=Trajectory | |||
| 3 | fly down | past | the hawk | behind the bush cow; antelope nsubj; quietly property | vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent behind cow=Location | ||||
| 4 | perch | past | the hawk not said here | antelope | the horns of the bush cow | softly property | vn put_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent himself=Theme on horn=Destination | ||
| 5 | sight | the bush cow | nom sight «cognition transitive»: of=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/pg70959/23/24/