Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 1, sentence 7
He therefore consulted another python, who advised him to go into a far country and try to borrow from different men a head, feet and hands, white teeth, and a fine face and nose, but that he should keep his own eyes.
Who acts: python · What happens: consult, advise, go, try, borrow, keep · To what, where: python, far country, own eyes
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 (python), 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 consulted | nsubj |
| 2 | therefore | therefore | ADV | _ | 3 consulted | advmod |
| 3 | consulted | consult | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | another | another | DET | PronType=Ind | 5 python | det |
| 5 | python | python | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 consulted | obj |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 8 advised | punct |
| 7 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 8 advised | nsubj |
| 8 | advised | advise | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 python | acl:relcl |
| 9 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 8 advised | obj |
| 10 | to | to | PART | _ | 11 go | mark |
| 11 | go | go | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 8 advised | xcomp |
| 12 | into | into | ADP | _ | 15 country | case |
| 13 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 15 country | det |
| 14 | far | far | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 15 country | amod |
| 15 | country | country | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 go | obl |
| 16 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 try | cc |
| 17 | try | try | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 11 go | conj |
| 18 | to | to | PART | _ | 19 borrow | mark |
| 19 | borrow | borrow | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 17 try | xcomp |
| 20 | from | from | ADP | _ | 22 men | case |
| 21 | different | different | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 22 men | amod |
| 22 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 borrow | obl |
| 23 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 24 head | det |
| 24 | head | head | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 men | nmod:unmarked |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 feet | punct |
| 26 | feet | foot | NOUN | Number=Plur | 22 men | conj |
| 27 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 28 hands | cc |
| 28 | hands | hand | NOUN | Number=Plur | 22 men | conj |
| 29 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 31 teeth | punct |
| 30 | white | white | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 31 teeth | amod |
| 31 | teeth | tooth | NOUN | Number=Plur | 22 men | conj |
| 32 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 36 face | punct |
| 33 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 36 face | cc |
| 34 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 36 face | det |
| 35 | fine | fine | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 36 face | amod |
| 36 | face | face | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 consulted | parataxis |
| 37 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 38 nose | cc |
| 38 | nose | nose | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 face | conj |
| 39 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 44 keep | punct |
| 40 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 44 keep | cc |
| 41 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 44 keep | mark |
| 42 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 44 keep | nsubj |
| 43 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 44 keep | aux |
| 44 | keep | keep | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 consulted | advcl |
| 45 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 47 eyes | nmod:poss |
| 46 | own | own | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 47 eyes | amod |
| 47 | eyes | eye | NOUN | Number=Plur | 44 keep | obj |
| 48 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 consulted | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | consult | past | python | another python | a fine face and nose parataxis; therefore property | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent python=Theme | |||
| 2 | advise speech: other | past | another python | python | vn advise-37.9-1 «NP V NP how S_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 3 | go not said to happen | to-infinitive | python not said here | a far country | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme into country=Initial_Location | ||||
| 4 | try | infinitive | python not said here | vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 5 | borrow not said to happen | to-infinitive | python not said here | from different men a head and feet and hands and white teeth | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent from man=Source | ||||
| 6 | keep | should | python | python's own eyes | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eye=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/pg70959/24/7/