Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 2, sentence 50

They therefore went to the chief and asked him to tell them what the bird was saying, but even the chief himself was unable to explain, and told the men not to trouble about what the bird said, but to continue with their hunting, and that when they returned to the town he would call upon the lot caster for an explanation.

Who acts: men, bird, chief · What happens: go, ask, tell, say, be, explain · To what, where: chief, men · 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 (men, bird, chief), 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	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 went	nsubj
2	therefore	therefore	ADV	_	3 went	advmod
3	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	6 chief	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 chief	det
6	chief	chief	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 went	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 asked	cc
8	asked	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 went	conj
9	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 asked	iobj
10	to	to	PART	_	11 tell	mark
11	tell	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 asked	xcomp
12	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 tell	iobj
13	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	17 saying	obj
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 bird	det
15	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 saying	nsubj
16	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	17 saying	aux
17	saying	say	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	11 tell	ccomp
18	,	,	PUNCT	_	25 unable	punct
19	but	but	CCONJ	_	25 unable	cc
20	even	even	ADV	_	22 chief	advmod
21	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	22 chief	det
22	chief	chief	NOUN	Number=Sing	25 unable	nsubj
23	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	22 chief	nmod
24	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	25 unable	cop
25	unable	unable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 went	conj
26	to	to	PART	_	27 explain	mark
27	explain	explain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	25 unable	xcomp
28	,	,	PUNCT	_	30 told	punct
29	and	and	CCONJ	_	30 told	cc
30	told	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 went	parataxis
31	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	32 men	det
32	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	30 told	obj
33	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	35 trouble	advmod
34	to	to	PART	_	35 trouble	mark
35	trouble	trouble	NOUN	Number=Sing	30 told	ccomp
36	about	about	ADP	_	37 what	case
37	what	what	PRON	PronType=Rel	35 trouble	nmod
38	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	39 bird	det
39	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	40 said	nsubj
40	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	37 what	acl:relcl
41	,	,	PUNCT	_	44 continue	punct
42	but	but	CCONJ	_	44 continue	cc
43	to	to	PART	_	44 continue	mark
44	continue	continue	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	30 told	conj
45	with	with	ADP	_	47 hunting	case
46	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	47 hunting	nmod:poss
47	hunting	hunting	NOUN	Number=Sing	44 continue	obl
48	,	,	PUNCT	_	59 call	punct
49	and	and	CCONJ	_	59 call	cc
50	that	that	SCONJ	_	53 returned	mark
51	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	53 returned	advmod
52	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	53 returned	nsubj
53	returned	return	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	59 call	advcl
54	to	to	ADP	_	56 town	case
55	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	56 town	det
56	town	town	NOUN	Number=Sing	53 returned	obl
57	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	59 call	nsubj
58	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	59 call	aux
59	call	call	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 went	parataxis
60	upon	upon	ADP	_	63 caster	case
61	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	63 caster	det
62	lot	lot	NOUN	Number=Sing	63 caster	compound
63	caster	caster	NOUN	Number=Sing	59 call	obl
64	for	for	ADP	_	66 explanation	case
65	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	66 explanation	det
66	explanation	explanation	NOUN	Number=Sing	63 caster	nmod
67	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 went	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	to whom	where	other	roles by
1	go	past	men = man		the chief	therefore property	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to chief=Initial_Location
2	ask speech: ask	past	men = man not said here	Chief			vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic
3	tell speech: assert not said to happen	to-infinitive	men = man not said here	men = man			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic
4	say speech: assert	past · progressive	the bird			what obj	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic
5	is	past	the chief bird			unable property	tree rules
6	explain speech: assert	to-infinitive	the chief bird not said here				vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
7	tell speech: assert	past		the men		trouble ccomp	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent man=Recipient
8	say speech: assert	past	the bird				vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
9	continue	to-infinitive				with men's hunting	vn continue-55.3 «NP.eventuality V PP.subeventuality»: agent=Eventuality with hunting=Subeventuality
10	return	past	men = man			to the town result	vn convert-26.6.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Patient to town=Result
11	call	would	bird			upon the lot caster for a explanation	vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
12	hunt		men = man				nom hunting «act transitive»: poss=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/pg70959/25/50/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 2, sentence 50

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 2, sentence 50