Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 3, sentence 31
As she had nothing to give them to eat, she at last thought of her father’s goat, which was being kept for her, but she dared not kill it while her brother Ode was in the house.
Who acts: ESSAMA, brother · What happens: have, give, eat, keep, kill, be · To what, where: nothing, goats, last thought, thought, house, goat
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 (ESSAMA, brother), 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 | As | as | SCONJ | _ | 3 had | mark |
| 2 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 had | nsubj |
| 3 | had | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | nothing | nothing | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Neg | 3 had | obj |
| 5 | to | to | PART | _ | 6 give | mark |
| 6 | give | give | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 nothing | acl |
| 7 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 6 give | iobj |
| 8 | to | to | PART | _ | 9 eat | mark |
| 9 | eat | eat | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 6 give | advcl |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 thought | punct |
| 11 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 14 thought | nsubj |
| 12 | at | at | ADP | _ | 14 thought | case |
| 13 | last | last | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 14 thought | amod |
| 14 | thought | thought | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 had | conj |
| 15 | of | of | ADP | _ | 19 goat | case |
| 16 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 17 father | nmod:poss |
| 17 | father | father | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 goat | nmod:poss |
| 18 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 17 father | case |
| 19 | goat | goat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 thought | nmod |
| 20 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 kept | punct |
| 21 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 24 kept | obj |
| 22 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 24 kept | aux:pass |
| 23 | being | be | AUX | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 24 kept | aux:pass |
| 24 | kept | keep | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 14 thought | parataxis |
| 25 | for | for | ADP | _ | 26 her | case |
| 26 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 24 kept | obl |
| 27 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 32 kill | punct |
| 28 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 32 kill | cc |
| 29 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 32 kill | nsubj |
| 30 | dared | dare | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 32 kill | aux |
| 31 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 30 dared | advmod |
| 32 | kill | kill | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 24 kept | conj |
| 33 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 32 kill | obj |
| 34 | while | while | SCONJ | _ | 41 house | mark |
| 35 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 36 brother | nmod:poss |
| 36 | brother | brother | NOUN | Number=Sing | 41 house | nsubj |
| 37 | Ode | Ode | PROPN | Number=Sing | 36 brother | appos |
| 38 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 41 house | cop |
| 39 | in | in | ADP | _ | 41 house | case |
| 40 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 41 house | det |
| 41 | house | house | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 kill | advcl |
| 42 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 had | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | have | past | ESSAMA | nothing | last thought ESSAMA of ESSAMA's father's goat conj | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient | |||
| 2 | give | to-infinitive | ESSAMA not said here | nothing not said here | goats = goat | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme | |||
| 3 | eat | to-infinitive | ESSAMA not said here | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 4 | keep | past · passive | last thought ESSAMA of ESSAMA's father's goat | for ESSAMA | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: which=Theme | ||||
| 5 | kill | past | ESSAMA | thought | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme | ||||
| 6 | is | past | ESSAMA's brother | the house | tree rules | ||||
| 7 | think | ESSAMA's father's goat | nom thought «cognition transitive»: of=patient |
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/pg70959/26/31/