Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, E. Dayrell., sentence 17
The hawk, seeing what a fine child Agbor was, thought he would try to save his life, and immediately set about removing the ants from Agbor’s body.
Who acts: hawk, fine child · What happens: see, be, think, try, save, set · To what, where: hawk, life, ants, body · 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, fine child), 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 hawk | det |
| 2 | hawk | hawk | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 thought | nsubj |
| 3 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 seeing | punct |
| 4 | seeing | see | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 2 hawk | acl |
| 5 | what | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 4 seeing | obj |
| 6 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 8 child | det |
| 7 | fine | fine | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 child | amod |
| 8 | child | child | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 what | nsubj |
| 9 | Agbor | Agbor | PROPN | Number=Sing | 8 child | appos |
| 10 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 what | cop |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 2 hawk | punct |
| 12 | thought | think | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 13 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 15 try | nsubj |
| 14 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 15 try | aux |
| 15 | try | try | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 12 thought | ccomp |
| 16 | to | to | PART | _ | 17 save | mark |
| 17 | save | save | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 15 try | xcomp |
| 18 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 19 life | nmod:poss |
| 19 | life | life | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 save | obj |
| 20 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 23 set | punct |
| 21 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 23 set | cc |
| 22 | immediately | immediately | ADV | _ | 23 set | advmod |
| 23 | set | set | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 15 try | conj |
| 24 | about | about | SCONJ | _ | 25 removing | mark |
| 25 | removing | remove | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 23 set | advcl |
| 26 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 27 ants | det |
| 27 | ants | ant | NOUN | Number=Plur | 25 removing | obj |
| 28 | from | from | ADP | _ | 31 body | case |
| 29 | Agbor | Agbor | PROPN | Number=Sing | 31 body | nmod:poss |
| 30 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 29 Agbor | case |
| 31 | body | body | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 removing | obl |
| 32 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 12 thought | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | see | gerund | the hawk not said here | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer | |||||
| 2 | is a | past | a fine child | the hawk | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | think speech: other | past | the hawk | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | |||||
| 4 | try | would | HAWK | vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 5 | save not said to happen | to-infinitive | HAWK not said here | HAWK's life | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Theme | ||||
| 6 | set | infinitive | HAWK not said here | immediately property | vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient | ||||
| 7 | remove | gerund | HAWK not said here | the ants | Agbor's body | vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent ant=Theme from body=Source |
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/pg70959/3/17/