Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 1, sentence 59
That night Chief Kaka gave orders to four of his young men to arm themselves with sharp matchets, and to lie in wait on the road to Okuni.
Who acts: Chief · What happens: give, lie · To what, where: orders, four, wait
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 | That | that | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 2 night | det |
| 2 | night | night | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 gave | obl:unmarked |
| 3 | Chief | Chief | PROPN | Number=Sing | 5 gave | nsubj |
| 4 | Kaka | Kaka | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 Chief | flat |
| 5 | gave | give | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 6 | orders | order | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 gave | obj |
| 7 | to | to | ADP | _ | 8 four | case |
| 8 | four | four | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 5 gave | obl |
| 9 | of | of | ADP | _ | 12 men | case |
| 10 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 12 men | nmod:poss |
| 11 | young | young | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 12 men | amod |
| 12 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 8 four | nmod |
| 13 | to | to | PART | _ | 14 arm | mark |
| 14 | arm | arm | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 men | conj |
| 15 | themselves | themselves | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Emp Reflex=Yes | 14 arm | nmod:unmarked |
| 16 | with | with | ADP | _ | 18 matchets | case |
| 17 | sharp | sharp | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 18 matchets | amod |
| 18 | matchets | matchet | NOUN | Number=Plur | 14 arm | nmod |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 22 lie | punct |
| 20 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 22 lie | cc |
| 21 | to | to | PART | _ | 22 lie | mark |
| 22 | lie | lie | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 5 gave | conj |
| 23 | in | in | ADP | _ | 24 wait | case |
| 24 | wait | wait | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 lie | obl |
| 25 | on | on | ADP | _ | 27 road | case |
| 26 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 27 road | det |
| 27 | road | road | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 lie | obl |
| 28 | to | to | ADP | _ | 29 Okuni | case |
| 29 | Okuni | Okuni | PROPN | Number=Sing | 27 road | nmod |
| 30 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 gave | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | give | past | Chief | orders | four of Chief's young men and arm arms with sharp matchets | night | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent order=Theme to four=Recipient | ||
| 2 | lie | to-infinitive | Chief not said here | wait | on the road to Okuni | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in wait=Location |
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/pg70959/24/59/