Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 3, sentence 72
Very shortly the river ju-ju threw Ode up, and he tried to swim, but one of the men in a canoe pulled him out of the water and brought him to the bank.
Who acts: river, ju, one · What happens: throw up, try, swim, pull, bring · To what, where: Ode, ju, water, bank
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 (river, ju, one), 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 | Very | very | ADV | _ | 2 shortly | advmod |
| 2 | shortly | shortly | ADV | _ | 8 threw | advmod |
| 3 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 river | det |
| 4 | river | river | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 threw | nsubj |
| 5 | ju | ju | PROPN | Number=Sing | 4 river | appos |
| 6 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 7 ju | punct |
| 7 | ju | ju | PROPN | Number=Sing | 5 ju | flat |
| 8 | threw | throw | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 9 | Ode | Ode | PROPN | Number=Sing | 8 threw | obj |
| 10 | up | up | ADP | _ | 8 threw | compound:prt |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 tried | punct |
| 12 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 14 tried | cc |
| 13 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 14 tried | nsubj |
| 14 | tried | try | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 threw | conj |
| 15 | to | to | PART | _ | 16 swim | mark |
| 16 | swim | swim | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 14 tried | xcomp |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 pulled | punct |
| 18 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 26 pulled | cc |
| 19 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 26 pulled | nsubj |
| 20 | of | of | ADP | _ | 22 men | case |
| 21 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 22 men | det |
| 22 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 19 one | nmod |
| 23 | in | in | ADP | _ | 25 canoe | case |
| 24 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 25 canoe | det |
| 25 | canoe | canoe | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 men | nmod |
| 26 | pulled | pull | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 threw | conj |
| 27 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 26 pulled | obj |
| 28 | out | out | ADP | _ | 31 water | case |
| 29 | of | of | ADP | _ | 31 water | case |
| 30 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 31 water | det |
| 31 | water | water | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 pulled | obl |
| 32 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 33 brought | cc |
| 33 | brought | bring | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 threw | conj |
| 34 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 33 brought | obj |
| 35 | to | to | ADP | _ | 37 bank | case |
| 36 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 37 bank | det |
| 37 | bank | bank | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 brought | obl |
| 38 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 threw | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | throw up | past | the river | Ode | shortly property | vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent ode=Theme | |||
| 2 | try | past | ju | vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 3 | swim not said to happen | to-infinitive | ju not said here | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 4 | pull | past | one of the men in a canoe | ju | the water | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.initial_location»: agent=Agent he=Theme out water=Initial_Location | |||
| 5 | bring | past | the river not said here | ju | the bank | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent he=Theme to bank=Destination |
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/pg70959/26/72/