Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 1, sentence 63
He therefore determined to follow the farm road, which, although much longer, he thought would probably be safer; he thus missed the four men who were lying in wait for him.
Who acts: farm road, Chief, four men · What happens: follow, think, be, miss, lie · To what, where: farm road, four men, wait · 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 (farm road, Chief, four 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 | He | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 determined | nsubj |
| 2 | therefore | therefore | ADV | _ | 3 determined | advmod |
| 3 | determined | determined | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 4 | to | to | PART | _ | 5 follow | mark |
| 5 | follow | follow | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 determined | xcomp |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 road | det |
| 7 | farm | farm | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 road | compound |
| 8 | road | road | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 follow | obj |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 thought | punct |
| 10 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 17 thought | nsubj |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 thought | punct |
| 12 | although | although | SCONJ | _ | 17 thought | mark |
| 13 | much | much | ADV | _ | 14 longer | advmod |
| 14 | longer | long | ADV | Degree=Cmp | 17 thought | advmod |
| 15 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 longer | punct |
| 16 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 17 thought | nsubj |
| 17 | thought | think | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 road | acl:relcl |
| 18 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 21 safer | aux |
| 19 | probably | probably | ADV | _ | 21 safer | advmod |
| 20 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 21 safer | cop |
| 21 | safer | safe | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 17 thought | ccomp |
| 22 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 25 missed | punct |
| 23 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 25 missed | nsubj |
| 24 | thus | thus | ADV | _ | 25 missed | advmod |
| 25 | missed | miss | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 17 thought | conj |
| 26 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 28 men | det |
| 27 | four | four | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 28 men | nummod |
| 28 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 25 missed | obj |
| 29 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 31 lying | nsubj |
| 30 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 31 lying | aux |
| 31 | lying | lie | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 28 men | acl:relcl |
| 32 | in | in | ADP | _ | 33 wait | case |
| 33 | wait | wait | NOUN | Number=Sing | 31 lying | obl |
| 34 | for | for | ADP | _ | 35 him | case |
| 35 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 31 lying | obl |
| 36 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 determined | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | follow | to-infinitive | the farm road | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent road=Theme | |||||
| 2 | think speech: other | past | the farm road | Chief nsubj; long property | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 3 | is | would | probably, safe property | tree rules | |||||
| 4 | miss | past | Chief | the four men | thus property | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer man=Stimulus | |||
| 5 | lie | past · progressive | the four men | wait | for Chief | 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/pg70959/24/63/