Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell., sentence 33

That night the bush cow slept very soundly, and at midnight, when nothing could be heard but the occasional hoot of an owl or the croaking of the frogs in the marsh, the hare went very quietly and stole the meat from the bush cow’s fire and took it home with him, as before.

Who acts: bush cow, owl, frogs · What happens: sleep, hear, go, steal, take, hoot · To what, where: nothing, meat, fire

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 (bush cow, owl, frogs), 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	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	2 night	det
2	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 slept	obl:unmarked
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 cow	det
4	bush	bush	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 cow	compound
5	cow	cow	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 slept	nsubj
6	slept	sleep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	very	very	ADV	_	8 soundly	advmod
8	soundly	soundly	ADV	_	6 slept	advmod
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	38 went	punct
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	38 went	cc
11	at	at	ADP	_	12 midnight	case
12	midnight	midnight	NOUN	Number=Sing	38 went	obl
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 heard	punct
14	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	18 heard	advmod
15	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	18 heard	nsubj:pass
16	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	18 heard	aux
17	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	18 heard	aux:pass
18	heard	hear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	12 midnight	acl:relcl
19	but	but	CCONJ	_	22 hoot	cc
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	22 hoot	det
21	occasional	occasional	ADJ	Degree=Pos	22 hoot	amod
22	hoot	hoot	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 heard	conj
23	of	of	ADP	_	25 owl	case
24	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	25 owl	det
25	owl	owl	NOUN	Number=Sing	22 hoot	nmod
26	or	or	CCONJ	_	28 croaking	cc
27	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	28 croaking	det
28	croaking	croaking	NOUN	Number=Sing	22 hoot	conj
29	of	of	ADP	_	31 frogs	case
30	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	31 frogs	det
31	frogs	frog	NOUN	Number=Plur	28 croaking	nmod
32	in	in	ADP	_	34 marsh	case
33	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	34 marsh	det
34	marsh	marsh	NOUN	Number=Sing	31 frogs	nmod
35	,	,	PUNCT	_	37 hare	punct
36	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	37 hare	det
37	hare	hare	NOUN	Number=Sing	22 hoot	conj
38	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 slept	parataxis
39	very	very	ADV	_	40 quietly	advmod
40	quietly	quietly	ADV	_	38 went	advmod
41	and	and	CCONJ	_	42 stole	cc
42	stole	steal	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	38 went	conj
43	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	44 meat	det
44	meat	meat	NOUN	Number=Sing	42 stole	obj
45	from	from	ADP	_	50 fire	case
46	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	48 cow	det
47	bush	bush	NOUN	Number=Sing	48 cow	compound
48	cow	cow	NOUN	Number=Sing	50 fire	nmod:poss
49	’s	's	PART	_	48 cow	case
50	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	42 stole	obl
51	and	and	CCONJ	_	52 took	cc
52	took	take	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	38 went	conj
53	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	52 took	obj
54	home	home	ADV	_	52 took	advmod
55	with	with	ADP	_	56 him	case
56	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	52 took	obl
57	,	,	PUNCT	_	59 before	punct
58	as	as	ADP	_	59 before	case
59	before	before	ADV	_	52 took	advmod
60	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 slept	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sleep	past	the bush cow			night	soundly property	vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	hear	could · passive		nothing			the occasional hoot of a owl or the croaking of the frogs in the marsh and the hare conj	vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: subject=Stimulus
3	go	past				midnight	quietly property	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
4	steal	past		the meat	the bush cow's fire			vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent meat=Theme from fire=Source
5	take	past		meat			with hare; before, home property	vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme
6	hoot		a owl					nom hoot «communication intransitive»: of=agent
7	croak		the frogs in the marsh					nom croaking «communication intransitive»: of=agent
8	fire		the bush cow					nom fire «event transitive»: poss=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/pg70959/4/33/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell., sentence 33

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell., sentence 33