Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 3, sentence 47

The spider then told each man and woman to say before they started to cross the river, “If I stole Chief Okim’s goat, let the rope break with me when I get to the middle; but if I am not a thief, let me cross over in safety.”

Who acts: spider, men · What happens: tell, say, start, cross, steal, let · To what, where: man, river, goat, rope break, thief, spider · 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 (spider, men), 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	2 spider	det
2	spider	spider	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 told	nsubj
3	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	4 told	advmod
4	told	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	6 man	det
6	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 told	obj
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 woman	cc
8	woman	woman	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 man	conj
9	to	to	PART	_	10 say	mark
10	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 told	ccomp
11	before	before	SCONJ	_	13 started	mark
12	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 started	nsubj
13	started	start	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 say	ccomp
14	to	to	PART	_	15 cross	mark
15	cross	cross	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	13 started	xcomp
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 river	det
17	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 cross	obj
18	,	,	PUNCT	_	28 let	punct
19	“	"	PUNCT	_	28 let	punct
20	If	if	SCONJ	_	22 stole	mark
21	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	22 stole	nsubj
22	stole	steal	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	28 let	advcl
23	Chief	Chief	PROPN	Number=Sing	26 goat	nmod:poss
24	Okim	Okim	PROPN	Number=Sing	23 Chief	flat
25	’s	's	PART	_	23 Chief	case
26	goat	goat	NOUN	Number=Sing	22 stole	obj
27	,	,	PUNCT	_	22 stole	punct
28	let	let	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	15 cross	conj
29	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	31 break	det
30	rope	rope	NOUN	Number=Sing	31 break	compound
31	break	break	NOUN	Number=Sing	28 let	obj
32	with	with	ADP	_	33 me	case
33	me	I	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	28 let	obl
34	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	36 get	advmod
35	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	36 get	nsubj
36	get	get	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	28 let	advcl
37	to	to	ADP	_	39 middle	case
38	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	39 middle	det
39	middle	middle	NOUN	Number=Sing	36 get	obl
40	;	;	PUNCT	_	49 let	punct
41	but	but	CCONJ	_	49 let	cc
42	if	if	SCONJ	_	47 thief	mark
43	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	47 thief	nsubj
44	am	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	47 thief	cop
45	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	47 thief	advmod
46	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	47 thief	det
47	thief	thief	NOUN	Number=Sing	49 let	advcl
48	,	,	PUNCT	_	47 thief	punct
49	let	let	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 told	ccomp
50	me	I	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	49 let	obj
51	cross	cross	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	49 let	xcomp
52	over	over	ADV	_	51 cross	advmod
53	in	in	ADP	_	54 safety	case
54	safety	safety	NOUN	Number=Sing	51 cross	obl
55	.	.	PUNCT	_	49 let	punct
56	”	"	PUNCT	_	49 let	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tell speech: assert	past	the spider		each man and woman		then		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S»: agent=Agent man=Recipient clause=Topic
2	say speech: assert not said to happen	to-infinitive							vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	start	past	men = man						vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
4	cross	to-infinitive	men = man not said here	the river					vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent river=Patient
5	steal a condition, not said to happen, in a quote	past	the spider = spider	Chief's goat					vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location goat=Theme
6	let in a quote	infinitive	men = man not said here	the rope break				with the spider = spider	vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent break=Theme
7	get in a quote	present	the spider = spider					to the middle result	vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Patient to middle=Result
8	not is a a condition, not said to happen, in a quote	present	the spider = spider	a thief					tree rules
9	let in a quote	infinitive		the spider = spider					tree rules
10	cross over in a quote	infinitive	the spider = spider not said here			safety		over property	vn contiguous_location-47.8-1 «NP V»: agent=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/pg70959/26/47/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 3, sentence 47

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 3, sentence 47