Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 1, sentence 77
He therefore showed her a place where she was to bring the food; here he had made a string of snail shells hung on sticks, and told ’Ndere to rattle them when she brought his food, and that he would come to her.
Who acts: python, Ndere · What happens: show, be, make, hang, tell, rattle · To what, where: place, Ndere, string, snail shells, sticks, farm · 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, Ndere), 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 showed | nsubj |
| 2 | therefore | therefore | ADV | _ | 3 showed | advmod |
| 3 | showed | show | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 showed | iobj |
| 5 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 6 place | det |
| 6 | place | place | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 showed | obj |
| 7 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 11 bring | advmod |
| 8 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 bring | nsubj |
| 9 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 11 bring | cop |
| 10 | to | to | PART | _ | 11 bring | mark |
| 11 | bring | bring | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 6 place | acl:relcl |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 13 food | det |
| 13 | food | food | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 bring | obj |
| 14 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 18 made | punct |
| 15 | here | here | ADV | PronType=Dem | 18 made | advmod |
| 16 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 18 made | nsubj |
| 17 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 18 made | aux |
| 18 | made | make | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 3 showed | conj |
| 19 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 20 string | det |
| 20 | string | string | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 made | obj |
| 21 | of | of | ADP | _ | 23 shells | case |
| 22 | snail | snail | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 shells | compound |
| 23 | shells | shell | NOUN | Number=Plur | 20 string | nmod |
| 24 | hung | hang | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 23 shells | acl |
| 25 | on | on | ADP | _ | 26 sticks | case |
| 26 | sticks | stick | NOUN | Number=Plur | 24 hung | obl |
| 27 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 29 told | punct |
| 28 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 29 told | cc |
| 29 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 showed | parataxis |
| 30 | ’ | ' | PUNCT | _ | 31 Ndere | punct |
| 31 | Ndere | Ndere | PROPN | Number=Sing | 29 told | iobj |
| 32 | to | to | PART | _ | 33 rattle | mark |
| 33 | rattle | rattle | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 29 told | xcomp |
| 34 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 33 rattle | obj |
| 35 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 37 brought | advmod |
| 36 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 37 brought | nsubj |
| 37 | brought | bring | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 33 rattle | advcl |
| 38 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 39 food | nmod:poss |
| 39 | food | food | NOUN | Number=Sing | 37 brought | obj |
| 40 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 45 come | punct |
| 41 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 45 come | cc |
| 42 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 45 come | mark |
| 43 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 45 come | nsubj |
| 44 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 45 come | aux |
| 45 | come | come | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 29 told | conj |
| 46 | to | to | ADP | _ | 47 her | case |
| 47 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 45 come | obl |
| 48 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 showed | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | show | past | python | a place | Ndere | therefore property | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent she=Recipient place=Topic | ||
| 2 | is | past | Ndere | a place not said here | the food obj; bring property | tree rules | |||
| 3 | make | past · perfect | python | a string of snail shells | here | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent string=Product | |||
| 4 | hang | participle | snail shells not said here | sticks | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on stick=Location | ||||
| 5 | tell speech: assert | past | Ndere | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent ndere=Recipient clause=Topic | |||||
| 6 | rattle not said to happen | to-infinitive | farm | vn animal_sounds-38 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent they=Theme | |||||
| 7 | bring | past | Ndere | python's food | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent food=Theme | ||||
| 8 | come | would | python | Ndere | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to she=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/pg70959/24/77/