Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxx.--the Game of Hide-and-seek As Played By the Hawk and the Bush Cow., sentence 4

The hunters were never able to kill him, because when they saw him, which was very seldom, it would be when he went to a pool to drink; then they would wait for the antelope to put his head down to the water, but this he never did, as he drank through small holes in his feet.

Who acts: hunters, king, this · What happens: not be, kill, see, be, drink, wait · To what, where: king, head, small holes

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 (hunters, king, this), 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 hunters	det
2	hunters	hunter	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 able	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 able	cop
4	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	5 able	advmod
5	able	able	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	7 kill	mark
7	kill	kill	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 able	xcomp
8	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 kill	obj
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 saw	punct
10	because	because	SCONJ	_	13 saw	mark
11	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	13 saw	advmod
12	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 saw	nsubj
13	saw	see	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 able	conj
14	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 saw	obj
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 seldom	punct
16	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	19 seldom	nsubj
17	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	19 seldom	cop
18	very	very	ADV	_	19 seldom	advmod
19	seldom	seldom	ADV	_	13 saw	advmod
20	,	,	PUNCT	_	22 would	punct
21	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	22 would	nsubj
22	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	19 seldom	advcl
23	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	26 went	cop
24	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	26 went	advmod
25	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	26 went	nsubj
26	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	22 would	conj
27	to	to	ADP	_	29 pool	case
28	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	29 pool	det
29	pool	pool	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 went	obl
30	to	to	PART	_	31 drink	mark
31	drink	drink	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	26 went	advcl
32	;	;	PUNCT	_	36 wait	punct
33	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	36 wait	advmod
34	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	36 wait	nsubj
35	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	36 wait	aux
36	wait	wait	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 able	parataxis
37	for	for	ADP	_	39 antelope	case
38	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	39 antelope	det
39	antelope	antelope	NOUN	Number=Sing	36 wait	obl
40	to	to	PART	_	41 put	mark
41	put	put	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	36 wait	advcl
42	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	43 head	nmod:poss
43	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	41 put	obj
44	down	down	ADV	_	41 put	advmod
45	to	to	ADP	_	47 water	case
46	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	47 water	det
47	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	41 put	obl
48	,	,	PUNCT	_	53 did	punct
49	but	but	CCONJ	_	53 did	cc
50	this	this	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	53 did	nsubj
51	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	53 did	nsubj
52	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	53 did	advmod
53	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	36 wait	advcl
54	,	,	PUNCT	_	57 drank	punct
55	as	as	SCONJ	_	57 drank	mark
56	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	57 drank	nsubj
57	drank	drink	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	36 wait	conj
58	through	through	ADP	_	60 holes	case
59	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	60 holes	amod
60	holes	hole	NOUN	Number=Plur	57 drank	obl
61	in	in	ADP	_	63 feet	case
62	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	63 feet	nmod:poss
63	feet	foot	NOUN	Number=Plur	57 drank	obl
64	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 able	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not is	past	the hunters				able property	tree rules
2	kill	to-infinitive	the hunters not said here	king				vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme
3	see	past	hunters = hunter	king				vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus
4	is	past					which nsubj; seldom property	tree rules
5	is	infinitive	king				to a pool; go property	tree rules
6	drink	to-infinitive	king not said here					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
7	wait	would	hunters = hunter			then	for the antelope	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
8	put down	to-infinitive	hunters = hunter not said here	king's head			to the water; down property	vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent head=Goal
9	not do	past	this				king nsubj	vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
10	drink	past	king		small holes		in king's feet	vn eat-39.1-1 «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/pg70959/23/4/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxx.--the Game of Hide-and-seek As Played By the Hawk and the Bush Cow., sentence 4

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 4