Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 1, sentence 34
’Ndere then answered her parents as follows:--“I have always refused, up to the present, to marry all the men you have asked me to marry, but I am going to marry this man.
Who acts: Ndere, men · What happens: answer, follow, refuse, marry, ask, go · To what, where: parents, men, Ndere, man · 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 (Ndere, men), 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 | ’ | ' | PUNCT | _ | 4 answered | punct |
| 2 | Ndere | Ndere | PROPN | Number=Sing | 4 answered | nsubj |
| 3 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 4 answered | advmod |
| 4 | answered | answer | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 6 parents | nmod:poss |
| 6 | parents | parent | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 answered | obj |
| 7 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 8 follows | mark |
| 8 | follows | follow | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 answered | advcl |
| 9 | : | : | PUNCT | _ | 4 answered | punct |
| 10 | -- | -- | PUNCT | _ | 15 refused | punct |
| 11 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 15 refused | punct |
| 12 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 15 refused | nsubj |
| 13 | have | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 15 refused | aux |
| 14 | always | always | ADV | PronType=Tot | 15 refused | advmod |
| 15 | refused | refuse | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 4 answered | ccomp |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 present | punct |
| 17 | up | up | ADV | _ | 20 present | advmod |
| 18 | to | to | ADP | _ | 20 present | case |
| 19 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 20 present | det |
| 20 | present | present | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 refused | obl |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 23 marry | punct |
| 22 | to | to | PART | _ | 23 marry | mark |
| 23 | marry | marry | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | 15 refused | parataxis |
| 24 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 26 men | det:predet |
| 25 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 26 men | det |
| 26 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 29 asked | nsubj:pass |
| 27 | you | you | PRON | Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs | 29 asked | nsubj |
| 28 | have | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 29 asked | aux |
| 29 | asked | ask | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 23 marry | ccomp |
| 30 | me | I | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 29 asked | iobj |
| 31 | to | to | PART | _ | 32 marry | mark |
| 32 | marry | marry | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 29 asked | xcomp |
| 33 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 37 going | punct |
| 34 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 37 going | cc |
| 35 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 37 going | nsubj |
| 36 | am | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 37 going | aux |
| 37 | going | go | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 29 asked | conj |
| 38 | to | to | PART | _ | 39 marry | mark |
| 39 | marry | marry | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 37 going | xcomp |
| 40 | this | this | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 41 man | det |
| 41 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 39 marry | obj |
| 42 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 answered | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | answer speech: assert | past | Ndere | Ndere's parents | then | tree rules | |||
| 2 | follow | present | Ndere not said here | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 3 | refuse in a quote | present · perfect | Ndere | to the present; always property | vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 4 | marry in a quote | to-infinitive | tree rules | ||||||
| 5 | ask speech: ask in a quote | present · perfect · passive | all men | Ndere | you nsubj | tree rules | |||
| 6 | marry not said to happen, in a quote | to-infinitive | all men not said here | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient | |||||
| 7 | go in a quote | present · progressive | Ndere | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 8 | marry in a quote | to-infinitive | Ndere not said here | this man | vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=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/pg70959/24/34/