Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 1, sentence 44
It was not until after they had walked for two days that they reached Chief Kaku’s town, and when he saw them he was so glad that he at once had a goat killed in front of ’Ndere and sprinkled the blood over her feet.
Who acts: rods, Chief · What happens: not walk, reach, see, be, have, kill · To what, where: room, two days, rods, goat, front, blood
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 (rods, 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 | It | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 8 walked | nsubj |
| 2 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 walked | aux:pass |
| 3 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 8 walked | advmod |
| 4 | until | until | SCONJ | _ | 8 walked | mark |
| 5 | after | after | SCONJ | _ | 8 walked | mark |
| 6 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 8 walked | nsubj |
| 7 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 walked | aux |
| 8 | walked | walk | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 9 | for | for | ADP | _ | 11 days | case |
| 10 | two | two | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 11 days | nummod |
| 11 | days | day | NOUN | Number=Plur | 8 walked | obl |
| 12 | that | that | PRON | PronType=Rel | 14 reached | obj |
| 13 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 14 reached | nsubj |
| 14 | reached | reach | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 11 days | acl:relcl |
| 15 | Chief | Chief | PROPN | Number=Sing | 18 town | nmod:poss |
| 16 | Kaku | Kaku | PROPN | Number=Sing | 15 Chief | flat |
| 17 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 15 Chief | case |
| 18 | town | town | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 reached | obj |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 glad | punct |
| 20 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 28 glad | cc |
| 21 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 23 saw | advmod |
| 22 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 23 saw | nsubj |
| 23 | saw | see | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 28 glad | advcl |
| 24 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 23 saw | obj |
| 25 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 28 glad | nsubj |
| 26 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 28 glad | cop |
| 27 | so | so | ADV | _ | 28 glad | advmod |
| 28 | glad | glad | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 walked | conj |
| 29 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 33 had | mark |
| 30 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 33 had | nsubj |
| 31 | at | at | ADP | _ | 32 once | case |
| 32 | once | once | ADV | NumForm=Word NumType=Mult | 33 had | obl |
| 33 | had | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 28 glad | advcl |
| 34 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 35 goat | det |
| 35 | goat | goat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 had | obj |
| 36 | killed | kill | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 35 goat | acl |
| 37 | in | in | ADP | _ | 38 front | case |
| 38 | front | front | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 killed | obl |
| 39 | of | of | ADP | _ | 41 Ndere | case |
| 40 | ’ | ' | PUNCT | _ | 41 Ndere | punct |
| 41 | Ndere | Ndere | PROPN | Number=Sing | 38 front | nmod |
| 42 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 43 sprinkled | cc |
| 43 | sprinkled | sprinkle | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 33 had | conj |
| 44 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 45 blood | det |
| 45 | blood | blood | NOUN | Number=Sing | 43 sprinkled | obj |
| 46 | over | over | ADP | _ | 48 feet | case |
| 47 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 48 feet | nmod:poss |
| 48 | feet | foot | NOUN | Number=Plur | 43 sprinkled | obl |
| 49 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 walked | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not walk | past · perfect · passive | room | day | rods = rod nsubj | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Trajectory | |||
| 2 | reach | past | rods = rod | two days | Chief's town obj | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: agent=Agent that=Beneficiary town=Theme | |||
| 3 | see | past | Chief | rods = rod | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer they=Stimulus | ||||
| 4 | is | past | Chief | glad property | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | have | past | Chief | a goat | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent goat=Patient | ||||
| 6 | kill | participle | a goat not said here | front of Ndere | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer | ||||
| 7 | sprinkle | past | Chief not said here | the blood | Ndere's feet | vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent blood=Theme over foot=Destination |
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/pg70959/24/44/