Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 1, sentence 67

As he could not send his young men to Okuni to kill the python and take ’Ndere away by force, as that would mean war between the two countries, for which he was not prepared, seeing that the Okuni people were very powerful, he determined to wait and lay another trap for the python.

Who acts: Chief, that, Okuni people · What happens: not send, kill, take ', mean, not prepare, see · To what, where: young men, Okuni, python, Ndere, war, Chief

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, that, Okuni people), 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	As	as	SCONJ	_	5 send	mark
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 send	nsubj
3	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 send	aux
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 send	advmod
5	send	send	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	50 determined	advcl
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 men	nmod:poss
7	young	young	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 men	amod
8	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 send	obj
9	to	to	ADP	_	10 Okuni	case
10	Okuni	Okuni	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 send	obl
11	to	to	PART	_	12 kill	mark
12	kill	kill	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 send	advcl
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 python	det
14	python	python	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 kill	obj
15	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 take	cc
16	take	take	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 kill	conj
17	’	'	ADP	_	16 take	compound:prt
18	Ndere	Ndere	PROPN	Number=Sing	16 take	obj
19	away	away	ADV	_	16 take	advmod
20	by	by	ADP	_	21 force	case
21	force	force	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 away	obl
22	,	,	PUNCT	_	26 mean	punct
23	as	as	SCONJ	_	26 mean	mark
24	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	26 mean	nsubj
25	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	26 mean	aux
26	mean	mean	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	16 take	conj
27	war	war	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 mean	obj
28	between	between	ADP	_	31 countries	case
29	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	31 countries	det
30	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	31 countries	nummod
31	countries	country	NOUN	Number=Plur	27 war	nmod
32	,	,	PUNCT	_	38 prepared	punct
33	for	for	ADP	_	34 which	case
34	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	38 prepared	obl
35	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	38 prepared	nsubj
36	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	38 prepared	aux:pass
37	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	38 prepared	advmod
38	prepared	prepare	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	26 mean	parataxis
39	,	,	PUNCT	_	40 seeing	punct
40	seeing	see	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	38 prepared	advcl
41	that	that	SCONJ	_	47 powerful	mark
42	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	44 people	det
43	Okuni	Okuni	PROPN	Number=Sing	44 people	compound
44	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	47 powerful	nsubj
45	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	47 powerful	cop
46	very	very	ADV	_	47 powerful	advmod
47	powerful	powerful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	40 seeing	advcl
48	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 send	punct
49	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	50 determined	nsubj
50	determined	determine	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
51	to	to	PART	_	52 wait	mark
52	wait	wait	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	50 determined	xcomp
53	and	and	CCONJ	_	54 lay	cc
54	lay	lay	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	52 wait	conj
55	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	56 trap	det
56	trap	trap	NOUN	Number=Sing	54 lay	obj
57	for	for	ADP	_	59 python	case
58	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	59 python	det
59	python	python	NOUN	Number=Sing	54 lay	obl
60	.	.	PUNCT	_	50 determined	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	not send	could	Chief	Chief's young men	Okuni		vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent man=Theme to okuni=Destination
2	kill	to-infinitive	Chief not said here	the python			vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent python=Theme
3	take '	infinitive	Chief not said here		Ndere	away property	vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument ndere=Destination
4	mean	would	that	war		between the two countries	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent war=Topic
5	not prepare	past · passive		Chief		which obl	vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: subject=Product for which=Beneficiary
6	see	gerund					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
7	is	past	the Okuni people			powerful property	tree rules
8	determine	past	Chief				vn discover-84 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
9	wait	to-infinitive	Chief not said here				vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
10	lay	infinitive	Chief not said here	another trap		for the python	vn create-26.4 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent trap=Result for python=Beneficiary

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/pg70959/24/67/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 1, sentence 67

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 1, sentence 67