Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 1, sentence 61
This the young men promised to do, and set off before it was light, telling no one where they were going.
Who acts: young men, ’, men · What happens: promise, do, set off, be, tell, go · To what, where: one · 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 (young men, ’, 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 | This | this | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 2 the | nsubj |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 men | det |
| 3 | young | young | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 men | amod |
| 4 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 promised | nsubj |
| 5 | promised | promise | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 6 | to | to | PART | _ | 7 do | mark |
| 7 | do | do | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 5 promised | xcomp |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 set | punct |
| 9 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 10 set | cc |
| 10 | set | set | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 7 do | conj |
| 11 | off | off | ADP | _ | 10 set | compound:prt |
| 12 | before | before | SCONJ | _ | 15 light | mark |
| 13 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 15 light | nsubj |
| 14 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 15 light | cop |
| 15 | light | light | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 10 set | advcl |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 telling | punct |
| 17 | telling | tell | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 15 light | advcl |
| 18 | no | no | DET | PronType=Neg | 19 one | det |
| 19 | one | one | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 telling | obj |
| 20 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 23 going | advmod |
| 21 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 23 going | nsubj |
| 22 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 23 going | aux |
| 23 | going | go | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 19 one | acl:relcl |
| 24 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 promised | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | promise speech: promise | past | the young men | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | do not said to happen | to-infinitive | the young men not said here | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 3 | set off | infinitive | the young men not said here | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 4 | is | past | ’ = ' | light property | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | tell speech: assert | gerund | ’ = ' not said here | no one | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent one=Recipient | ||||
| 6 | go | past · progressive | men = man | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
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/pg70959/24/61/