Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Fig. 2.--chief Indoma’s Compound., sentence 26
An iguana never runs more than about fifty yards at a time; he then stops to get his breath.
Who acts: iguana · What happens: not run, stop, get · To what, where: more, breath
This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Fig. 2.--chief Indoma’s Compound.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (iguana), 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 | An | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 2 iguana | det |
| 2 | iguana | iguana | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 runs | nsubj |
| 3 | never | never | ADV | PronType=Neg | 4 runs | advmod |
| 4 | runs | run | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | more | more | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 4 runs | obj |
| 6 | than | than | ADP | _ | 9 yards | case |
| 7 | about | about | ADV | _ | 8 fifty | advmod |
| 8 | fifty | fifty | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 9 yards | nummod |
| 9 | yards | yard | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 more | obl |
| 10 | at | at | ADP | _ | 12 time | case |
| 11 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 12 time | det |
| 12 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 yards | nmod |
| 13 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 16 stops | punct |
| 14 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 stops | nsubj |
| 15 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 16 stops | advmod |
| 16 | stops | stop | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 runs | conj |
| 17 | to | to | PART | _ | 18 get | mark |
| 18 | get | get | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 16 stops | xcomp |
| 19 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 20 breath | nmod:poss |
| 20 | breath | breath | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 get | obj |
| 21 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 runs | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not run | present | a iguana | more than fifty yards at a time | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme more=Trajectory | ||||
| 2 | stop | present | iguana | then | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality | ||||
| 3 | get | to-infinitive | iguana not said here | iguana's breath | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer breath=Stimulus |
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/pg70959/29/26/