Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 3, sentence 50
The chief then began to lament, saying his goat had been stolen, and now his son was drowned.
Who acts: chief · What happens: begin, lament, say, steal, drown · To what, where: goat, son · 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 (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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 chief | det |
| 2 | chief | chief | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 began | nsubj |
| 3 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 4 began | advmod |
| 4 | began | begin | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | to | to | PART | _ | 6 lament | mark |
| 6 | lament | lament | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 began | xcomp |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 8 saying | punct |
| 8 | saying | say | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 6 lament | advcl |
| 9 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 10 goat | nmod:poss |
| 10 | goat | goat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 stolen | nsubj:pass |
| 11 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 13 stolen | aux |
| 12 | been | be | AUX | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 13 stolen | aux:pass |
| 13 | stolen | steal | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 8 saying | ccomp |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 drowned | punct |
| 15 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 20 drowned | cc |
| 16 | now | now | ADV | PronType=Dem | 20 drowned | advmod |
| 17 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 18 son | nmod:poss |
| 18 | son | son | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 drowned | nsubj:pass |
| 19 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 20 drowned | aux:pass |
| 20 | drowned | drown | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 13 stolen | conj |
| 21 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 began | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | begin | past | the chief | then | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | ||||
| 2 | lament | to-infinitive | the chief not said here | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer | |||||
| 3 | say speech: assert | gerund | the chief not said here | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 4 | steal | past · perfect · passive | spider's goat | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme | |||||
| 5 | drown | past · passive | spider's son | now | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: subject=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/pg70959/26/50/