Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 2, sentence 13
Then ’Ndere caught two of the fish with her basket, and took them home and cooked them for food, but none of the girls in the house would eat them, as they all said that if they did so they would die. ’
Who acts: Ndere, none, people · What happens: catch, take, cook, eat, say, do · To what, where: two, people · 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 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, none, people), 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 | Then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 4 caught | advmod |
| 2 | ’ | ' | PUNCT | _ | 1 Then | punct |
| 3 | Ndere | Ndere | PROPN | Number=Sing | 4 caught | nsubj |
| 4 | caught | catch | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | two | two | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 4 caught | obj |
| 6 | of | of | ADP | _ | 8 fish | case |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 fish | det |
| 8 | fish | fish | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 two | nmod |
| 9 | with | with | ADP | _ | 11 basket | case |
| 10 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 11 basket | nmod:poss |
| 11 | basket | basket | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 fish | nmod |
| 12 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 took | punct |
| 13 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 14 took | cc |
| 14 | took | take | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 caught | conj |
| 15 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 14 took | obj |
| 16 | home | home | ADV | _ | 14 took | advmod |
| 17 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 18 cooked | cc |
| 18 | cooked | cook | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 14 took | conj |
| 19 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 18 cooked | obj |
| 20 | for | for | ADP | _ | 21 food | case |
| 21 | food | food | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 cooked | obl |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 32 eat | punct |
| 23 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 32 eat | cc |
| 24 | none | none | PRON | PronType=Neg | 32 eat | nsubj |
| 25 | of | of | ADP | _ | 27 girls | case |
| 26 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 27 girls | det |
| 27 | girls | girl | NOUN | Number=Plur | 24 none | nmod |
| 28 | in | in | ADP | _ | 30 house | case |
| 29 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 30 house | det |
| 30 | house | house | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 girls | nmod |
| 31 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 32 eat | aux |
| 32 | eat | eat | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 caught | parataxis |
| 33 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 32 eat | obj |
| 34 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 38 said | punct |
| 35 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 38 said | mark |
| 36 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 38 said | nsubj |
| 37 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 36 they | det |
| 38 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 32 eat | conj |
| 39 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 42 did | mark |
| 40 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 42 did | mark |
| 41 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 42 did | nsubj |
| 42 | did | do | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 46 die | advcl |
| 43 | so | so | ADV | _ | 46 die | advmod |
| 44 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 46 die | nsubj |
| 45 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 46 die | aux |
| 46 | die | die | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 38 said | ccomp |
| 47 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 caught | punct |
| 48 | ’ | ' | PUNCT | _ | 4 caught | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | catch | past | Ndere | two of the fish with fish's basket | then | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent two=Theme | |||
| 2 | take | past | Ndere not said here | people | home property | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme | |||
| 3 | cook | past | Ndere not said here | people | for food | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent they=Product for food=Beneficiary | |||
| 4 | eat | would | none of the girls in the house | people | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient | ||||
| 5 | say speech: assert | past | people | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 6 | do a condition, not said to happen | past | people | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 7 | die | would | people | vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
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/pg70959/25/13/