Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxx.--the Game of Hide-and-seek As Played By the Hawk and the Bush Cow., sentence 6
The eagle was elected king of the birds because he lived higher up in the air than any of the other birds, and could thus direct them better.
Who acts: king · What happens: elect, live, direct · To what, where: eagle, air, eagles
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 (king), 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 eagle | det |
| 2 | eagle | eagle | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 elected | nsubj:pass |
| 3 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 elected | aux:pass |
| 4 | elected | elect | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 5 | king | king | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 elected | xcomp |
| 6 | of | of | ADP | _ | 8 birds | case |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 birds | det |
| 8 | birds | bird | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 king | nmod |
| 9 | because | because | SCONJ | _ | 11 lived | mark |
| 10 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 lived | nsubj |
| 11 | lived | live | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 elected | advcl |
| 12 | higher | high | ADV | Degree=Cmp | 13 up | advmod |
| 13 | up | up | ADV | _ | 11 lived | advmod |
| 14 | in | in | ADP | _ | 16 air | case |
| 15 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 16 air | det |
| 16 | air | air | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 lived | obl |
| 17 | than | than | ADP | _ | 18 any | case |
| 18 | any | any | DET | PronType=Ind | 16 air | nmod |
| 19 | of | of | ADP | _ | 22 birds | case |
| 20 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 22 birds | det |
| 21 | other | other | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 22 birds | amod |
| 22 | birds | bird | NOUN | Number=Plur | 18 any | nmod |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 27 direct | punct |
| 24 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 27 direct | cc |
| 25 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 27 direct | aux |
| 26 | thus | thus | ADV | _ | 27 direct | advmod |
| 27 | direct | direct | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | 4 elected | parataxis |
| 28 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 27 direct | obj |
| 29 | better | good | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 27 direct | xcomp |
| 30 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 elected | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | elect | past · passive | the eagle | king of the birds xcomp | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme | ||||
| 2 | live | past | king | the air than any of the other birds | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in air=Location | ||||
| 3 | direct | could | eagles = eagle | good, thus property | vn supervision-95.2.2-1 «NP V NP.predicate»: agent=Agent they=Eventuality |
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/pg70959/23/6/