Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 1, sentence 11
Then Chief Kaku asked the python what he wanted and how he could assist him.
Who acts: Chief · What happens: ask, want, assist · To what, where: python · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Chief), 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 | Then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 4 asked | advmod |
| 2 | Chief | Chief | PROPN | Number=Sing | 4 asked | nsubj |
| 3 | Kaku | Kaku | PROPN | Number=Sing | 2 Chief | flat |
| 4 | asked | ask | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 python | det |
| 6 | python | python | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 asked | obj |
| 7 | what | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 9 wanted | obj |
| 8 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 9 wanted | nsubj |
| 9 | wanted | want | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 asked | ccomp |
| 10 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 14 assist | cc |
| 11 | how | how | ADV | PronType=Int | 14 assist | advmod |
| 12 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 14 assist | nsubj |
| 13 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 14 assist | aux |
| 14 | assist | assist | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 9 wanted | conj |
| 15 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 14 assist | obj |
| 16 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 asked | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ask speech: ask | past | Chief | the python | then | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent python=Recipient clause=Topic | |||
| 2 | want | past | Chief | what obj | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot what=Theme | ||||
| 3 | assist | could | Chief | python | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary |
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/pg70959/24/11/