Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 2, sentence 12
Ndere, hearing of this, went to the stream with a basket, and the fish seeing her, came close, so she began to sing softly to them, when more fish came.
Who acts: Ndere, fish, more fish, this · What happens: go, see, come, begin, sing, hear · To what, where: stream, fish, people
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 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Ndere, fish, more fish, this), 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 | Ndere | Ndere | PROPN | Number=Sing | 7 went | nsubj |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 hearing | punct |
| 3 | hearing | hearing | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Ndere | appos |
| 4 | of | of | ADP | _ | 5 this | case |
| 5 | this | this | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 3 hearing | nmod |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Ndere | punct |
| 7 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 8 | to | to | ADP | _ | 10 stream | case |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 stream | det |
| 10 | stream | stream | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 went | obl |
| 11 | with | with | ADP | _ | 13 basket | case |
| 12 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 13 basket | det |
| 13 | basket | basket | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 went | obl |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 21 came | punct |
| 15 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 21 came | cc |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 fish | det |
| 17 | fish | fish | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 came | nsubj |
| 18 | seeing | see | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 17 fish | acl |
| 19 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 18 seeing | obj |
| 20 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 fish | punct |
| 21 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 went | parataxis |
| 22 | close | close | ADV | Degree=Pos | 21 came | advmod |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 began | punct |
| 24 | so | so | ADV | _ | 26 began | advmod |
| 25 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 26 began | nsubj |
| 26 | began | begin | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 21 came | conj |
| 27 | to | to | PART | _ | 28 sing | mark |
| 28 | sing | sing | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 26 began | xcomp |
| 29 | softly | softly | ADV | _ | 28 sing | advmod |
| 30 | to | to | ADP | _ | 31 them | case |
| 31 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 28 sing | obl |
| 32 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 36 came | punct |
| 33 | when | when | SCONJ | _ | 36 came | mark |
| 34 | more | more | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 35 fish | amod |
| 35 | fish | fish | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 came | nsubj |
| 36 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 26 began | advcl |
| 37 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 7 went | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | go | past | Ndere | the stream | with a basket | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to stream=Initial_Location | |||
| 2 | see | gerund | the fish not said here | fish | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer she=Stimulus | ||||
| 3 | come | past | the fish | close property | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 4 | begin | past | fish | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 5 | sing speech: express | to-infinitive | fish not said here | people | softly property | vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to they=Recipient | |||
| 6 | come | past | more fish | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 7 | hear | this | nom hearing «act intransitive»: of=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/pg70959/25/12/