Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 2, sentence 37
The hunting law was that, during the hunting time, the men might eat the meat of the animals they killed, but they were not allowed to eat any fish, and the women might eat fish only, and not eat any meat from animals killed hunting.
Who acts: hunting law, men, women, animals · What happens: be, kill, not allow, eat, not eat · To what, where: animals, men, fish, meat, hunting
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 (hunting law, men, women, animals), 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 law | det |
| 2 | hunting | hunting | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 law | compound |
| 3 | law | law | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 eat | nsubj |
| 4 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 15 eat | cop |
| 5 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 15 eat | mark |
| 6 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 5 that | punct |
| 7 | during | during | ADP | _ | 10 time | case |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 time | det |
| 9 | hunting | hunting | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 time | compound |
| 10 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 eat | obl |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 time | punct |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 13 men | det |
| 13 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 15 eat | nsubj |
| 14 | might | might | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 15 eat | aux |
| 15 | eat | eat | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 meat | det |
| 17 | meat | meat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 eat | obj |
| 18 | of | of | ADP | _ | 20 animals | case |
| 19 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 20 animals | det |
| 20 | animals | animal | NOUN | Number=Plur | 17 meat | nmod |
| 21 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 22 killed | nsubj |
| 22 | killed | kill | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 20 animals | acl:relcl |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 allowed | punct |
| 24 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 28 allowed | cc |
| 25 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 28 allowed | nsubj:pass |
| 26 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 28 allowed | aux:pass |
| 27 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 28 allowed | advmod |
| 28 | allowed | allow | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 15 eat | conj |
| 29 | to | to | PART | _ | 30 eat | mark |
| 30 | eat | eat | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 28 allowed | xcomp |
| 31 | any | any | DET | PronType=Ind | 32 fish | det |
| 32 | fish | fish | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 eat | obj |
| 33 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 38 eat | punct |
| 34 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 38 eat | cc |
| 35 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 36 women | det |
| 36 | women | woman | NOUN | Number=Plur | 38 eat | nsubj |
| 37 | might | might | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 38 eat | aux |
| 38 | eat | eat | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 15 eat | conj |
| 39 | fish | fish | NOUN | Number=Plur | 38 eat | obj |
| 40 | only | only | ADV | _ | 38 eat | advmod |
| 41 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 44 eat | punct |
| 42 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 44 eat | cc |
| 43 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 44 eat | advmod |
| 44 | eat | eat | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 15 eat | conj |
| 45 | any | any | DET | PronType=Ind | 46 meat | det |
| 46 | meat | meat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 44 eat | obj |
| 47 | from | from | ADP | _ | 48 animals | case |
| 48 | animals | animal | NOUN | Number=Plur | 44 eat | obl |
| 49 | killed | kill | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 48 animals | acl |
| 50 | hunting | hunting | NOUN | Number=Sing | 49 killed | obj |
| 51 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 15 eat | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | might · past | the hunting law | time | the men nsubj; the meat of the animals obj; eat property | tree rules | |||
| 2 | kill | past | men = man | the animals not said here | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent animal=Theme | ||||
| 3 | not allow | past · passive | men = man | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: subject=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 4 | eat not said to happen | to-infinitive | men = man not said here | any fish | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fish=Patient | ||||
| 5 | eat | might | the women | fish | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fish=Patient | ||||
| 6 | not eat | infinitive | the hunting law not said here | any meat | from animals | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meat=Patient | |||
| 7 | kill | participle | animals not said here | hunting | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hunting=Theme |
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/pg70959/25/37/