Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, E. Dayrell., sentence 10
While she was thus engaged a branch fell from a tree and hit her on the belly, this immediately brought on her confinement, and she gave birth to twins in the forest.
Who acts: branch, Awu · What happens: engage, fall, hit, bring, give, confine · To what, where: Awu, tree, this, confinement, birth, twins
This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, E. Dayrell.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (branch, Awu), 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 | While | while | SCONJ | _ | 5 engaged | mark |
| 2 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 engaged | nsubj |
| 3 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 engaged | aux:pass |
| 4 | thus | thus | ADV | _ | 5 engaged | advmod |
| 5 | engaged | engage | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 6 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 7 branch | det |
| 7 | branch | branch | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 fell | nsubj |
| 8 | fell | fall | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 engaged | ccomp |
| 9 | from | from | ADP | _ | 11 tree | case |
| 10 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 11 tree | det |
| 11 | tree | tree | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 fell | obl |
| 12 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 13 hit | cc |
| 13 | hit | hit | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 fell | conj |
| 14 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 13 hit | obj |
| 15 | on | on | ADP | _ | 17 belly | case |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 belly | det |
| 17 | belly | belly | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 hit | obl |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 21 brought | punct |
| 19 | this | this | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 21 brought | nsubj:pass |
| 20 | immediately | immediately | ADV | _ | 21 brought | advmod |
| 21 | brought | bring | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 13 hit | parataxis |
| 22 | on | on | ADP | _ | 24 confinement | case |
| 23 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 24 confinement | nmod:poss |
| 24 | confinement | confinement | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 brought | obl |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 gave | punct |
| 26 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 28 gave | cc |
| 27 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 28 gave | nsubj |
| 28 | gave | give | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 engaged | conj |
| 29 | birth | birth | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 gave | obj |
| 30 | to | to | ADP | _ | 31 twins | case |
| 31 | twins | twin | NOUN | Number=Plur | 28 gave | obl |
| 32 | in | in | ADP | _ | 34 forest | case |
| 33 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 34 forest | det |
| 34 | forest | forest | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 gave | obl |
| 35 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 engaged | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | engage | past · passive | Awu | thus property | vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP to be NP»: subject=Theme clause=Attribute | ||||
| 2 | fall | past | a branch | a tree | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme from tree=Initial_Location | ||||
| 3 | hit | past | a branch not said here | Awu | on the belly | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent she=Instrument on belly=Patient | |||
| 4 | bring | participle · passive | this | Awu's confinement | immediately property | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme on confinement=Destination | |||
| 5 | give | past | Awu | birth | twins | the forest | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent birth=Theme to twin=Recipient | ||
| 6 | confine | Awu | nom confinement «state transitive»: poss=agent |
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/pg70959/3/10/