Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxx.--the Game of Hide-and-seek As Played By the Hawk and the Bush Cow., sentence 38

When the bush fowls heard this they begged the cock and hen not to do so, and told them that the men would kill and eat them, but the cocks and hens replied that they would rather take their chance with the men than have their chickens killed by the hawk in the bush.

Who acts: bush, hawks, men, cocks · What happens: fowl, hear, beg, not do, tell, kill · To what, where: this, cock, hawks, chance, chickens · Speech: someone speaks here

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 (bush, hawks, men, cocks), 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	When	when	SCONJ	_	4 fowls	mark
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 bush	det
3	bush	bush	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 fowls	nsubj
4	fowls	fowl	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 begged	advcl
5	heard	hear	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 fowls	ccomp
6	this	this	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	5 heard	obj
7	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 begged	nsubj
8	begged	beg	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 cock	det
10	cock	cock	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 begged	obj
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 hen	cc
12	hen	hen	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 cock	conj
13	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	15 do	advmod
14	to	to	PART	_	15 do	mark
15	do	do	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 begged	xcomp
16	so	so	ADV	_	15 do	advmod
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 told	punct
18	and	and	CCONJ	_	19 told	cc
19	told	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 begged	conj
20	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 told	iobj
21	that	that	SCONJ	_	25 kill	mark
22	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	23 men	det
23	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	25 kill	nsubj
24	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	25 kill	aux
25	kill	kill	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	19 told	ccomp
26	and	and	CCONJ	_	27 eat	cc
27	eat	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	25 kill	conj
28	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	27 eat	obj
29	,	,	PUNCT	_	35 replied	punct
30	but	but	CCONJ	_	35 replied	cc
31	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	32 cocks	det
32	cocks	cock	NOUN	Number=Plur	35 replied	nsubj
33	and	and	CCONJ	_	34 hens	cc
34	hens	hen	NOUN	Number=Plur	32 cocks	conj
35	replied	reply	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 begged	conj
36	that	that	SCONJ	_	40 take	mark
37	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	40 take	nsubj
38	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	40 take	aux
39	rather	rather	ADV	_	40 take	advmod
40	take	take	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	35 replied	ccomp
41	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	42 chance	nmod:poss
42	chance	chance	NOUN	Number=Sing	40 take	obj
43	with	with	ADP	_	45 men	case
44	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	45 men	det
45	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	40 take	obl
46	than	than	SCONJ	_	47 have	mark
47	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	45 men	acl:relcl
48	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	49 chickens	nmod:poss
49	chickens	chicken	NOUN	Number=Plur	47 have	obj
50	killed	kill	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	49 chickens	acl
51	by	by	ADP	_	53 hawk	case
52	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	53 hawk	det
53	hawk	hawk	NOUN	Number=Sing	50 killed	obl
54	in	in	ADP	_	56 bush	case
55	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	56 bush	det
56	bush	bush	NOUN	Number=Sing	53 hawk	nmod
57	.	.	PUNCT	_	8 begged	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	fowl	present	the bush				tree rules
2	hear	past	the bush not said here	this			vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer this=Stimulus
3	beg speech: request	past	hawks = hawk		the cock and hen		vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent cock=Recipient clause=Topic
4	not do not said to happen	to-infinitive	hawks = hawk not said here				vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
5	tell speech: assert	past	hawks = hawk not said here		hawks = hawk		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic
6	kill	would	the men				vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer
7	eat	infinitive	the men not said here	hawks = hawk			vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient
8	reply speech: assert	past	the cocks and hens				vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
9	take	would	hawks = hawk	hawks's chance		with the men	vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chance=Theme
10	have	present	the men not said here	hawks's chickens			vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chicken=Patient
11	kill	participle		hawks's chickens not said here		by the hawk in the bush	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer
12	chance		hawks = hawk				nom chance «state intransitive»: poss=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/pg70959/23/38/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxx.--the Game of Hide-and-seek As Played By the Hawk and the Bush Cow., sentence 38

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxx.--the Game of Hide-and-seek As Played By the Hawk and the Bush Cow., sentence 38