Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, E. Dayrell., sentence 37
When he arrived at the house Agbor wanted to sit at the head of his mother, but the people who had assembled would not allow this, and told him to sit at Awu’s feet, which Agbor did.
Who acts: HAWK, Agbor, people · What happens: arrive, want, sit, assemble, not allow, tell · To what, where: house, head, this, HAWK, feet · 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, Agbor, people), 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 | When | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 3 arrived | advmod |
| 2 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 arrived | nsubj |
| 3 | arrived | arrive | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 wanted | advcl |
| 4 | at | at | ADP | _ | 6 house | case |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 house | det |
| 6 | house | house | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 arrived | obl |
| 7 | Agbor | Agbor | PROPN | Number=Sing | 8 wanted | nsubj |
| 8 | wanted | want | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 9 | to | to | PART | _ | 10 sit | mark |
| 10 | sit | sit | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 8 wanted | xcomp |
| 11 | at | at | ADP | _ | 13 head | case |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 13 head | det |
| 13 | head | head | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 sit | obl |
| 14 | of | of | ADP | _ | 16 mother | case |
| 15 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 16 mother | nmod:poss |
| 16 | mother | mother | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 head | nmod |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 allow | punct |
| 18 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 26 allow | cc |
| 19 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 20 people | det |
| 20 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 26 allow | nsubj |
| 21 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 23 assembled | nsubj |
| 22 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 23 assembled | aux |
| 23 | assembled | assemble | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 20 people | acl:relcl |
| 24 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 26 allow | aux |
| 25 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 26 allow | advmod |
| 26 | allow | allow | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 10 sit | conj |
| 27 | this | this | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 26 allow | obj |
| 28 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 30 told | punct |
| 29 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 30 told | cc |
| 30 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 wanted | conj |
| 31 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 30 told | iobj |
| 32 | to | to | PART | _ | 33 sit | mark |
| 33 | sit | sit | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 30 told | xcomp |
| 34 | at | at | ADP | _ | 37 feet | case |
| 35 | Awu | Awu | PROPN | Number=Sing | 37 feet | nmod:poss |
| 36 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 35 Awu | case |
| 37 | feet | foot | NOUN | Number=Plur | 33 sit | obl |
| 38 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 41 did | punct |
| 39 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 41 did | obj |
| 40 | Agbor | Agbor | PROPN | Number=Sing | 41 did | nsubj |
| 41 | did | do | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 33 sit | advcl |
| 42 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 wanted | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | arrive | past | HAWK | the house | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 2 | want | past | Agbor | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme | |||||
| 3 | sit not said to happen | to-infinitive | Agbor not said here | the head of HAWK's mother | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at head=Location | ||||
| 4 | assemble | past · perfect | the people | vn herd-47.5.2 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 5 | not allow | would | the people | this | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent this=Beneficiary | ||||
| 6 | tell speech: assert | past | Agbor not said here | HAWK | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 7 | sit not said to happen | to-infinitive | Agbor not said here | Awu's feet | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent at foot=Location | ||||
| 8 | do | past | Agbor | which obj | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent which=Eventuality |
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/pg70959/3/37/