Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell., sentence 103
The boy was always left at home, but the woman prepared food for him and placed it high up over the fireplace, and showed the boy how to get at it by standing on a native-made box.
Who acts: woman · What happens: leave, prepare, place, show, get, stand · To what, where: boy, home, food, fireplace, made box · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (woman), 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 boy | det |
| 2 | boy | boy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 left | nsubj:pass |
| 3 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 left | aux:pass |
| 4 | always | always | ADV | PronType=Tot | 5 left | advmod |
| 5 | left | leave | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 6 | at | at | ADP | _ | 7 home | case |
| 7 | home | home | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 left | obl |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 prepared | punct |
| 9 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 12 prepared | cc |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 woman | det |
| 11 | woman | woman | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 prepared | nsubj |
| 12 | prepared | prepare | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 left | parataxis |
| 13 | food | food | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 prepared | obj |
| 14 | for | for | ADP | _ | 15 him | case |
| 15 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 12 prepared | obl |
| 16 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 placed | cc |
| 17 | placed | place | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 prepared | conj |
| 18 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 17 placed | obj |
| 19 | high | high | ADV | Degree=Pos | 20 up | advmod |
| 20 | up | up | ADV | _ | 17 placed | advmod |
| 21 | over | over | ADP | _ | 23 fireplace | case |
| 22 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 fireplace | det |
| 23 | fireplace | fireplace | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 placed | obl |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 showed | punct |
| 25 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 26 showed | cc |
| 26 | showed | show | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 prepared | conj |
| 27 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 28 boy | det |
| 28 | boy | boy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 showed | obj |
| 29 | how | how | ADV | PronType=Int | 31 get | advmod |
| 30 | to | to | PART | _ | 31 get | mark |
| 31 | get | get | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 26 showed | ccomp |
| 32 | at | at | ADP | _ | 33 it | case |
| 33 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 31 get | obl |
| 34 | by | by | SCONJ | _ | 35 standing | mark |
| 35 | standing | stand | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 31 get | advcl |
| 36 | on | on | ADP | _ | 41 box | case |
| 37 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 41 box | det |
| 38 | native | native | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 40 made | compound |
| 39 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 38 native | punct |
| 40 | made | make | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 41 box | amod |
| 41 | box | box | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 standing | obl |
| 42 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 left | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | leave | past · passive | the boy | home | always property | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: subject=Theme at home=Location | |||
| 2 | prepare | past | the woman | food | for boy | vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent food=Product for he=Beneficiary | |||
| 3 | place | past | the woman not said here | food | the fireplace | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent it=Theme over fireplace=Destination | |||
| 4 | show | past | the woman not said here | the boy | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent boy=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 5 | get | to-infinitive | fireplace | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer | |||||
| 6 | stand | gerund | a made box | vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on box=Location | |||||
| 7 | make | participle | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset |
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/pg70959/4/103/