Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, E. Dayrell., sentence 41
“Here is a ‘walking woman’ who, several years ago, gave birth to twins in the forest, and, being naturally ashamed of herself, deserted her baby boy, and left him on the ground to be eaten by the driver ants.
Who acts: driver ants · What happens: be, walk, give, desert, leave, eat · To what, where: birth, twins, forest, baby boy, boy, ground
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 (driver ants), 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 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 2 Here | punct |
| 2 | Here | here | ADV | PronType=Dem | root | root |
| 3 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 2 Here | cop |
| 4 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 7 woman | det |
| 5 | ‘ | ' | PUNCT | _ | 6 walking | punct |
| 6 | walking | walk | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 7 woman | amod |
| 7 | woman | woman | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 ago | nsubj |
| 8 | ’ | ' | PUNCT | _ | 7 woman | punct |
| 9 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 13 ago | nsubj |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 ago | punct |
| 11 | several | several | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 12 years | amod |
| 12 | years | year | NOUN | Number=Plur | 13 ago | obl:unmarked |
| 13 | ago | ago | ADV | _ | 2 Here | conj |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 gave | punct |
| 15 | gave | give | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 13 ago | parataxis |
| 16 | birth | birth | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 gave | obj |
| 17 | to | to | ADP | _ | 18 twins | case |
| 18 | twins | twin | NOUN | Number=Plur | 15 gave | obl |
| 19 | in | in | ADP | _ | 21 forest | case |
| 20 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 21 forest | det |
| 21 | forest | forest | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 gave | obl |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 27 ashamed | punct |
| 23 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 27 ashamed | cc |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 23 and | punct |
| 25 | being | be | AUX | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 27 ashamed | cop |
| 26 | naturally | naturally | ADV | _ | 27 ashamed | advmod |
| 27 | ashamed | ashamed | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 15 gave | advcl |
| 28 | of | of | ADP | _ | 29 herself | case |
| 29 | herself | herself | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes | 27 ashamed | obl |
| 30 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 31 deserted | punct |
| 31 | deserted | desert | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 27 ashamed | conj |
| 32 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 34 boy | nmod:poss |
| 33 | baby | baby | NOUN | Number=Sing | 34 boy | compound |
| 34 | boy | boy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 31 deserted | obj |
| 35 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 37 left | punct |
| 36 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 37 left | cc |
| 37 | left | leave | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 31 deserted | conj |
| 38 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 37 left | obj |
| 39 | on | on | ADP | _ | 41 ground | case |
| 40 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 41 ground | det |
| 41 | ground | ground | NOUN | Number=Sing | 37 left | obl |
| 42 | to | to | PART | _ | 44 eaten | mark |
| 43 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 44 eaten | aux:pass |
| 44 | eaten | eat | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 37 left | advcl |
| 45 | by | by | ADP | _ | 48 ants | case |
| 46 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 48 ants | det |
| 47 | driver | driver | NOUN | Number=Sing | 48 ants | compound |
| 48 | ants | ant | NOUN | Number=Plur | 44 eaten | obl:agent |
| 49 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 2 Here | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is in a quote | present | here property | tree rules | |||||
| 2 | walk in a quote | gerund | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||||
| 3 | give in a quote | past | birth | twins | the forest | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent birth=Theme to twin=Recipient | |||
| 4 | is in a quote | gerund | of WOMAN; ashamed, naturally property | tree rules | |||||
| 5 | desert in a quote | past | WOMAN's baby boy | vn leave-51.2-1 «NP V NP.initial_location»: agent=Theme boy=Source | |||||
| 6 | leave in a quote | past | boy | the ground | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent he=Theme on ground=Location | ||||
| 7 | eat in a quote | to-infinitive · passive | the driver ants | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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/pg70959/3/41/