Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 1, sentence 70

But the first thing he had to do was to get ’Ndere to agree to come to him, so he sent off two of his young men to watch the python’s house, and told them to pretend they came from a distant country.

Who acts: python, first thing, things · What happens: have, do, be, agree, come, send off · To what, where: first thing, python, two, house, things, distant country · 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 (python, first thing, things), 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	But	but	CCONJ	_	11 get	cc
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 thing	det
3	first	first	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	4 thing	amod
4	thing	thing	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 get	nsubj
5	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 had	nsubj
6	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 thing	acl:relcl
7	to	to	PART	_	8 do	mark
8	do	do	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 had	xcomp
9	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 get	cop
10	to	to	PART	_	11 get	mark
11	get	get	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	23 sent	parataxis
12	’	'	PUNCT	_	13 Ndere	punct
13	Ndere	Ndere	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 get	obj
14	to	to	PART	_	15 agree	mark
15	agree	agree	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 get	xcomp
16	to	to	PART	_	17 come	mark
17	come	come	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	15 agree	xcomp
18	to	to	ADP	_	19 him	case
19	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	17 come	obl
20	,	,	PUNCT	_	23 sent	punct
21	so	so	ADV	_	23 sent	advmod
22	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	23 sent	nsubj
23	sent	send	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
24	off	off	ADP	_	23 sent	compound:prt
25	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	23 sent	obj
26	of	of	ADP	_	29 men	case
27	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	29 men	nmod:poss
28	young	young	ADJ	Degree=Pos	29 men	amod
29	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	25 two	nmod
30	to	to	PART	_	31 watch	mark
31	watch	watch	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	23 sent	advcl
32	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	33 python	det
33	python	python	NOUN	Number=Sing	35 house	nmod:poss
34	’s	's	PART	_	33 python	case
35	house	house	NOUN	Number=Sing	31 watch	obj
36	,	,	PUNCT	_	38 told	punct
37	and	and	CCONJ	_	38 told	cc
38	told	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	23 sent	conj
39	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	38 told	iobj
40	to	to	PART	_	41 pretend	mark
41	pretend	pretend	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	38 told	xcomp
42	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	43 came	nsubj
43	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	41 pretend	ccomp
44	from	from	ADP	_	47 country	case
45	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	47 country	det
46	distant	distant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	47 country	amod
47	country	country	NOUN	Number=Sing	43 came	obl
48	.	.	PUNCT	_	23 sent	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	other	roles by
1	have	past	python	the first thing not said here				tree rules
2	do	to-infinitive	the first thing not said here					vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	is	past	the first thing				Ndere obj; get property	tree rules
4	agree speech: agree	to-infinitive	the first thing not said here					vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
5	come not said to happen	to-infinitive	the first thing not said here		python			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to he=Initial_Location
6	send off	past	python	two of python's young men				vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent two=Theme
7	watch	to-infinitive	python not said here	the python's house				vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent house=Theme
8	tell speech: assert	past	python not said here		things = thing			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic
9	pretend not said to happen	to-infinitive	python not said here					tree rules
10	come	past	things = thing			a distant country		vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme from country=Initial_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/pg70959/24/70/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 1, sentence 70

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 1, sentence 70