Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 2, sentence 16
But the chief said, “No one ever eats that fish, as it has a smooth skin and is part of the water ju-ju.
Who acts: chief, one, soup · What happens: say, eat, have, be · To what, where: fish, smooth skin, part · 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 (chief, one, soup), 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 | _ | 4 said | cc |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 chief | det |
| 3 | chief | chief | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 said | nsubj |
| 4 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 eats | punct |
| 6 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 10 eats | punct |
| 7 | No | no | DET | PronType=Neg | 8 one | det |
| 8 | one | one | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 eats | nsubj |
| 9 | ever | ever | ADV | PronType=Ind | 10 eats | advmod |
| 10 | eats | eat | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 said | ccomp |
| 11 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 12 fish | mark |
| 12 | fish | fish | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 eats | obj |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 has | punct |
| 14 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 16 has | mark |
| 15 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 has | nsubj |
| 16 | has | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 10 eats | conj |
| 17 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 19 skin | det |
| 18 | smooth | smooth | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 19 skin | amod |
| 19 | skin | skin | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 has | obj |
| 20 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 22 part | cc |
| 21 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 22 part | cop |
| 22 | part | part | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 has | conj |
| 23 | of | of | ADP | _ | 28 ju | case |
| 24 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 28 ju | det |
| 25 | water | water | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 ju | compound |
| 26 | ju | ju | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 ju | compound |
| 27 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 26 ju | punct |
| 28 | ju | ju | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 part | nmod |
| 29 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 said | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | past | the chief | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 2 | eat in a quote | present | no one | fish | ever | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fish=Patient | |||
| 3 | have in a quote | present | soup | a smooth skin | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent skin=Patient | ||||
| 4 | is a in a quote | present | soup not said here | part | of the water ju ju | tree rules |
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/pg70959/25/16/