Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 1, sentence 78
The first day the pythons went to work on the farm ’Ndere brought the food and rattled the snail shells as she had been directed to do, and very soon afterwards the python came and took the calabashes away to the place where they were working, telling ’Ndere to wait until he had finished eating.
Who acts: pythons, Ndere, python, farm · What happens: go, work, bring, rattle, direct, do · To what, where: food, snail shells, Ndere, calabashes · 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 (pythons, Ndere, python, farm), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 day | det |
| 2 | first | first | ADJ | Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord | 3 day | amod |
| 3 | day | day | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 went | obl:unmarked |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 pythons | det |
| 5 | pythons | python | NOUN | Number=Plur | 6 went | nsubj |
| 6 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 7 | to | to | PART | _ | 8 work | mark |
| 8 | work | work | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 6 went | xcomp |
| 9 | on | on | ADP | _ | 11 farm | case |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 farm | det |
| 11 | farm | farm | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 work | obl |
| 12 | ’ | ' | PUNCT | _ | 14 brought | punct |
| 13 | Ndere | Ndere | PROPN | Number=Sing | 14 brought | nsubj |
| 14 | brought | bring | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 work | conj |
| 15 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 16 food | det |
| 16 | food | food | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 brought | obj |
| 17 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 18 rattled | cc |
| 18 | rattled | rattle | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 14 brought | conj |
| 19 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 21 shells | det |
| 20 | snail | snail | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 shells | compound |
| 21 | shells | shell | NOUN | Number=Plur | 18 rattled | obj |
| 22 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 26 directed | mark |
| 23 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 26 directed | nsubj |
| 24 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 26 directed | aux |
| 25 | been | be | AUX | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 26 directed | aux:pass |
| 26 | directed | direct | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 18 rattled | advcl |
| 27 | to | to | PART | _ | 28 do | mark |
| 28 | do | do | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 26 directed | xcomp |
| 29 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 36 came | punct |
| 30 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 36 came | cc |
| 31 | very | very | ADV | _ | 32 soon | advmod |
| 32 | soon | soon | ADV | Degree=Pos | 36 came | advmod |
| 33 | afterwards | afterwards | ADV | _ | 36 came | advmod |
| 34 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 35 python | det |
| 35 | python | python | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 came | nsubj |
| 36 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 went | conj |
| 37 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 38 took | cc |
| 38 | took | take | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 went | conj |
| 39 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 40 calabashes | det |
| 40 | calabashes | calabash | NOUN | Number=Plur | 38 took | obj |
| 41 | away | away | ADV | _ | 38 took | advmod |
| 42 | to | to | ADP | _ | 44 place | case |
| 43 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 44 place | det |
| 44 | place | place | NOUN | Number=Sing | 38 took | obl |
| 45 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 48 working | advmod |
| 46 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 48 working | nsubj |
| 47 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 48 working | aux |
| 48 | working | work | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 44 place | acl:relcl |
| 49 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 50 telling | punct |
| 50 | telling | tell | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 38 took | conj |
| 51 | ’ | ' | PUNCT | _ | 52 Ndere | punct |
| 52 | Ndere | Ndere | PROPN | Number=Sing | 50 telling | obj |
| 53 | to | to | PART | _ | 54 wait | mark |
| 54 | wait | wait | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 50 telling | xcomp |
| 55 | until | until | SCONJ | _ | 58 finished | mark |
| 56 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 58 finished | nsubj |
| 57 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 58 finished | aux |
| 58 | finished | finish | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 54 wait | advcl |
| 59 | eating | eat | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 58 finished | xcomp |
| 60 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 6 went | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | go | past | the pythons | day | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | ||||
| 2 | work | to-infinitive | the pythons not said here | on the farm | vn employment-95.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent on farm=Theme | ||||
| 3 | bring | past | Ndere | the food | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent food=Theme | ||||
| 4 | rattle | past | Ndere not said here | the snail shells | vn animal_sounds-38 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent shell=Theme | ||||
| 5 | direct | past · perfect · passive | Ndere | tree rules | |||||
| 6 | do | to-infinitive | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||||
| 7 | come | past | the python | afterwards, soon property | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 8 | take away | past | the pythons not said here | the calabashes | to the place; away property | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent calabash=Theme | |||
| 9 | work | past · progressive | farm | vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 10 | tell speech: assert | gerund | the pythons not said here | Ndere | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent ndere=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 11 | wait not said to happen | to-infinitive | the pythons not said here | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 12 | finish | past · perfect | python | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 13 | eat | gerund | python not said here | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
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/pg70959/24/78/