Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 1, sentence 2
He lived many years ago at the time when the Okuni people never eat the cat-fish, as they thought it was a part of the water ju-ju, having such a smooth skin.
Who acts: Chief, Okuni people, people, fish · What happens: live, not eat, think, be, have · To what, where: cat fish, part, smooth skin · 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, Okuni people, people, fish), 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 | He | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 2 lived | nsubj |
| 2 | lived | live | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | many | many | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 years | amod |
| 4 | years | year | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 ago | obl:unmarked |
| 5 | ago | ago | ADV | _ | 2 lived | advmod |
| 6 | at | at | ADP | _ | 8 time | case |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 time | det |
| 8 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 lived | obl |
| 9 | when | when | SCONJ | _ | 14 eat | mark |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 people | det |
| 11 | Okuni | Okuni | PROPN | Number=Sing | 12 people | compound |
| 12 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 eat | nsubj |
| 13 | never | never | ADV | PronType=Neg | 14 eat | advmod |
| 14 | eat | eat | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 8 time | acl:relcl |
| 15 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 18 fish | det |
| 16 | cat | cat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 fish | compound |
| 17 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 16 cat | punct |
| 18 | fish | fish | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 eat | obj |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 22 thought | punct |
| 20 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 22 thought | mark |
| 21 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 22 thought | nsubj |
| 22 | thought | think | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 lived | parataxis |
| 23 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 26 part | nsubj |
| 24 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 26 part | cop |
| 25 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 26 part | det |
| 26 | part | part | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 thought | ccomp |
| 27 | of | of | ADP | _ | 32 ju | case |
| 28 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 32 ju | det |
| 29 | water | water | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 ju | compound |
| 30 | ju | ju | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 ju | compound |
| 31 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 30 ju | punct |
| 32 | ju | ju | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 part | nmod |
| 33 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 34 having | punct |
| 34 | having | have | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 22 thought | conj |
| 35 | such | such | DET | PronType=Ind | 38 skin | det:predet |
| 36 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 38 skin | det |
| 37 | smooth | smooth | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 38 skin | amod |
| 38 | skin | skin | NOUN | Number=Sing | 34 having | obj |
| 39 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 lived | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | live | past | Chief | time | ago property | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||
| 2 | not eat | present | the Okuni people | the cat fish | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fish=Patient | ||||
| 3 | think speech: other | past | people | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 4 | is a | past | fish | a part | of the water ju ju | tree rules | |||
| 5 | have | gerund | people not said here | such smooth skin | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent skin=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/pg70959/24/2/