Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, E. Dayrell., sentence 52

This is the reason why hawks always take chickens wherever they find them, and in those days the people never thought of making any trouble with the hawk, as he had a right to the chickens, but nowadays when a hawk swoops down and seizes a chicken, the people shout out and try to kill him, as they have forgotten the story of how the twin child Agbor was redeemed by a basket of eggs.

Who acts: This, hawks, chickens, people, HAWK · What happens: be, take, find, not think, make, have · To what, where: reason, chickens, compounds, trouble, right, chicken

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 (This, hawks, chickens, 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	This	this	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	4 reason	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 reason	det
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	8 take	advmod
6	hawks	hawk	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 take	nsubj
7	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	8 take	advmod
8	take	take	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl:relcl
9	chickens	chicken	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 take	obj
10	wherever	wherever	ADV	PronType=Int	12 find	advmod
11	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 find	nsubj
12	find	find	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 take	advcl
13	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 find	obj
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	22 thought	punct
15	and	and	CCONJ	_	22 thought	cc
16	in	in	ADP	_	18 days	case
17	those	that	DET	Number=Plur PronType=Dem	18 days	det
18	days	day	NOUN	Number=Plur	22 thought	obl
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 people	det
20	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	22 thought	nsubj
21	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	22 thought	advmod
22	thought	think	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	parataxis
23	of	of	SCONJ	_	24 making	mark
24	making	make	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	22 thought	advcl
25	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	26 trouble	det
26	trouble	trouble	NOUN	Number=Sing	24 making	obj
27	with	with	ADP	_	29 hawk	case
28	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	29 hawk	det
29	hawk	hawk	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 trouble	nmod
30	,	,	PUNCT	_	33 had	punct
31	as	as	SCONJ	_	33 had	mark
32	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	33 had	nsubj
33	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	22 thought	conj
34	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	35 right	det
35	right	right	NOUN	Number=Sing	33 had	obj
36	to	to	ADP	_	38 chickens	case
37	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	38 chickens	det
38	chickens	chicken	NOUN	Number=Plur	35 right	nmod
39	,	,	PUNCT	_	45 swoops	punct
40	but	but	CCONJ	_	45 swoops	cc
41	nowadays	nowadays	ADV	_	45 swoops	advmod
42	when	when	SCONJ	_	45 swoops	mark
43	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	44 hawk	det
44	hawk	hawk	NOUN	Number=Sing	45 swoops	nsubj
45	swoops	swoop	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	22 thought	parataxis
46	down	down	ADV	_	45 swoops	advmod
47	and	and	CCONJ	_	48 seizes	cc
48	seizes	seize	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	45 swoops	conj
49	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	50 chicken	det
50	chicken	chicken	NOUN	Number=Sing	48 seizes	obj
51	,	,	PUNCT	_	54 shout	punct
52	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	53 people	det
53	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	54 shout	nsubj
54	shout	shout	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	45 swoops	parataxis
55	out	out	ADP	_	54 shout	compound:prt
56	and	and	CCONJ	_	57 try	cc
57	try	try	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	54 shout	conj
58	to	to	PART	_	59 kill	mark
59	kill	kill	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	57 try	xcomp
60	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	59 kill	obj
61	,	,	PUNCT	_	65 forgotten	punct
62	as	as	SCONJ	_	65 forgotten	mark
63	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	65 forgotten	nsubj
64	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	65 forgotten	aux
65	forgotten	forget	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	57 try	advcl
66	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	67 story	det
67	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	65 forgotten	obj
68	of	of	SCONJ	_	75 redeemed	mark
69	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	75 redeemed	advmod
70	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	72 child	det
71	twin	twin	NOUN	Number=Sing	72 child	compound
72	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	75 redeemed	nsubj:pass
73	Agbor	Agbor	PROPN	Number=Sing	72 child	appos
74	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	75 redeemed	aux:pass
75	redeemed	redeem	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	67 story	acl
76	by	by	ADP	_	78 basket	case
77	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	78 basket	det
78	basket	basket	NOUN	Number=Sing	75 redeemed	obl
79	of	of	ADP	_	80 eggs	case
80	eggs	egg	NOUN	Number=Plur	78 basket	nmod
81	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 reason	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	This	the reason				tree rules
2	take	present	hawks		chickens		always property	vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument chicken=Destination
3	find	present	chickens = chicken	compounds = compound			wherever property	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Topic
4	not think speech: other	past	the people			day		vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
5	make	gerund	the people not said here	any trouble			with the hawk	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset trouble=Product
6	have	past	HAWK	a right			to the chickens	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent right=Patient
7	swoop down	present	a hawk				down, nowadays property	tree rules
8	seize	present	a hawk not said here	a chicken				vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chicken=Theme
9	shout out speech: express	present	the people					vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent
10	try	infinitive	the people not said here					vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
11	kill not said to happen	to-infinitive	the people not said here	HAWK				vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme
12	forget	present · perfect	people	the story				tree rules
13	redeem	past · passive		the twin child			by a basket of eggs	vn steal-10.5 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

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/pg70959/3/52/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, E. Dayrell., sentence 52

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, E. Dayrell., sentence 52