Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, E. Dayrell., sentence 16
All this time a hawk had been circling around, high up in the air, searching for food, and when he saw Awu had deserted her baby he swooped down and carried the infant off with him to the top of a high tree.
Who acts: hawk, Awu · What happens: circle around, search, see, desert, swoop down, carry off · To what, where: baby, top · Speech: someone speaks here
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 (hawk, 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 | All | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 3 time | det:predet |
| 2 | this | this | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 3 time | det |
| 3 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 circling | obl:unmarked |
| 4 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 5 hawk | det |
| 5 | hawk | hawk | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 circling | nsubj |
| 6 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 circling | aux |
| 7 | been | be | AUX | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 8 circling | aux |
| 8 | circling | circle | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 9 | around | around | ADV | _ | 8 circling | advmod |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 up | punct |
| 11 | high | high | ADV | Degree=Pos | 12 up | advmod |
| 12 | up | up | ADV | _ | 8 circling | advmod |
| 13 | in | in | ADP | _ | 15 air | case |
| 14 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 air | det |
| 15 | air | air | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 up | obl |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 searching | punct |
| 17 | searching | search | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 8 circling | conj |
| 18 | for | for | ADP | _ | 19 food | case |
| 19 | food | food | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 searching | obl |
| 20 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 saw | punct |
| 21 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 24 saw | cc |
| 22 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 24 saw | advmod |
| 23 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 24 saw | nsubj |
| 24 | saw | see | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 circling | conj |
| 25 | Awu | Awu | PROPN | Number=Sing | 27 deserted | nsubj |
| 26 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 27 deserted | aux |
| 27 | deserted | desert | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 24 saw | ccomp |
| 28 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 29 baby | nmod:poss |
| 29 | baby | baby | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 deserted | obj |
| 30 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 31 swooped | nsubj |
| 31 | swooped | swoop | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 27 deserted | parataxis |
| 32 | down | down | ADP | _ | 31 swooped | compound:prt |
| 33 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 34 carried | cc |
| 34 | carried | carry | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 31 swooped | conj |
| 35 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 36 infant | det |
| 36 | infant | infant | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 37 off | advmod |
| 37 | off | off | ADP | _ | 34 carried | compound:prt |
| 38 | with | with | ADP | _ | 39 him | case |
| 39 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 34 carried | obl |
| 40 | to | to | ADP | _ | 42 top | case |
| 41 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 42 top | det |
| 42 | top | top | NOUN | Number=Sing | 34 carried | obl |
| 43 | of | of | ADP | _ | 46 tree | case |
| 44 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 46 tree | det |
| 45 | high | high | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 46 tree | amod |
| 46 | tree | tree | NOUN | Number=Sing | 42 top | nmod |
| 47 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 circling | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | circle around | past · perfect · progressive | a hawk | time | around property | vn contiguous_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme | |||
| 2 | search | gerund | a hawk not said here | for food | vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.theme NP.location»: agent=Agent for food=Theme | ||||
| 3 | see | past | HAWK | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | |||||
| 4 | desert | past · perfect | Awu | Awu's baby | vn leave-51.2-1 «NP V NP.initial_location»: agent=Theme baby=Source | ||||
| 5 | swoop down | past | HAWK | tree rules | |||||
| 6 | carry off | past | HAWK not said here | the top of a high tree | with HAWK | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent to top=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/pg70959/3/16/