Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 3, sentence 19
He then went to chief Alobi and said, “If a man kills another man he should be hanged, but if he breaks the hunter’s law he disobeys a chief’s order; he should be fined and not killed, and I think 260 rods would be a proper fine.”
Who acts: Agbor, man, 260 rods, chief · What happens: go, say, kill, hange, break, disobey · To what, where: chief Alobi, man, Agbor, law, order, proper fine · 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 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Agbor, man, 260 rods, 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 | He | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 went | nsubj |
| 2 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 3 went | advmod |
| 3 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | to | to | ADP | _ | 6 Alobi | case |
| 5 | chief | chief | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 Alobi | amod |
| 6 | Alobi | Alobi | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 went | obl |
| 7 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 8 said | cc |
| 8 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 went | conj |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 kills | punct |
| 10 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 14 kills | punct |
| 11 | If | if | SCONJ | _ | 14 kills | mark |
| 12 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 13 man | det |
| 13 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 kills | nsubj |
| 14 | kills | kill | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 8 said | ccomp |
| 15 | another | another | DET | PronType=Ind | 16 man | det |
| 16 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 kills | obj |
| 17 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 20 hanged | nsubj:pass |
| 18 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 20 hanged | aux |
| 19 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 20 hanged | aux:pass |
| 20 | hanged | hange | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 16 man | acl:relcl |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 31 disobeys | punct |
| 22 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 31 disobeys | cc |
| 23 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 25 breaks | mark |
| 24 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 25 breaks | nsubj |
| 25 | breaks | break | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 31 disobeys | advcl |
| 26 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 27 hunter | det |
| 27 | hunter | hunter | NOUN | Number=Sing | 29 law | nmod:poss |
| 28 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 27 hunter | case |
| 29 | law | law | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 breaks | obj |
| 30 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 31 disobeys | nsubj |
| 31 | disobeys | disobey | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 14 kills | conj |
| 32 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 33 chief | det |
| 33 | chief | chief | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 order | nmod:poss |
| 34 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 33 chief | case |
| 35 | order | order | NOUN | Number=Sing | 31 disobeys | obj |
| 36 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 40 fined | punct |
| 37 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 40 fined | nsubj:pass |
| 38 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 40 fined | aux |
| 39 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 40 fined | aux:pass |
| 40 | fined | fine | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 3 went | conj |
| 41 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 43 killed | cc |
| 42 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 43 killed | advmod |
| 43 | killed | kill | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 40 fined | conj |
| 44 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 47 think | punct |
| 45 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 47 think | cc |
| 46 | I | I | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 47 think | nsubj |
| 47 | think | think | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 went | parataxis |
| 48 | 260 | 260 | NUM | NumForm=Digit NumType=Card | 49 rods | nummod |
| 49 | rods | rod | NOUN | Number=Plur | 54 fine | nsubj |
| 50 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 54 fine | aux |
| 51 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 54 fine | cop |
| 52 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 54 fine | det |
| 53 | proper | proper | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 54 fine | amod |
| 54 | fine | fine | NOUN | Number=Sing | 47 think | ccomp |
| 55 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 went | punct |
| 56 | ” | " | PUNCT | _ | 3 went | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | go | past | Agbor | chief Alobi | then | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||
| 2 | say speech: assert | past | Agbor not said here | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 3 | kill a condition, not said to happen, in a quote | present | a man | another man | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Theme | ||||
| 4 | hange in a quote | should · passive | another man not said here | Agbor | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | break a condition, not said to happen, in a quote | present | Agbor | the hunter's law | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer law=Patient | ||||
| 6 | disobey in a quote | present | Agbor | a chief's order | tree rules | ||||
| 7 | fine in a quote | should · passive | Agbor | vn bill-54.5-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient | |||||
| 8 | not kill in a quote | participle | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer | ||||||
| 9 | think speech: other in a quote | present | Agbor | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 10 | is a in a quote | would | 260 rods | a proper fine | tree rules | ||||
| 11 | order in a quote | a chief | nom order «communication 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/pg70959/26/19/