Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell., sentence 42

He therefore determined that, when it became his turn to dry and guard the meat, he would take every precaution possible, and would try to catch whoever it was who always removed the meat at night, as he had no intention that his body should supply food for the remaining six animals.

Who acts: animal, meat, body · What happens: determine, become, dry, guard, take, try · To what, where: turn, meat, precaution, whoever, intention, food

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 (animal, meat, body), 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	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 determined	nsubj
2	therefore	therefore	ADV	_	3 determined	advmod
3	determined	determine	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	that	that	SCONJ	_	20 take	mark
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 became	punct
6	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	8 became	advmod
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 became	nsubj
8	became	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	20 take	advcl
9	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 turn	nmod:poss
10	turn	turn	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 became	xcomp
11	to	to	PART	_	12 dry	mark
12	dry	dry	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 turn	acl
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 guard	cc
14	guard	guard	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 dry	conj
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 meat	det
16	meat	meat	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 guard	obj
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 became	punct
18	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	20 take	nsubj
19	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	20 take	aux
20	take	take	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 determined	ccomp
21	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	22 precaution	det
22	precaution	precaution	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 take	obj
23	possible	possible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	20 take	advcl
24	,	,	PUNCT	_	27 try	punct
25	and	and	CCONJ	_	27 try	cc
26	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	27 try	aux
27	try	try	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 determined	conj
28	to	to	PART	_	29 catch	mark
29	catch	catch	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	27 try	xcomp
30	whoever	whoever	PRON	PronType=Rel	29 catch	obj
31	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	35 removed	nsubj
32	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	35 removed	cop
33	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	35 removed	nsubj
34	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	35 removed	advmod
35	removed	remove	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	30 whoever	acl:relcl
36	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	37 meat	det
37	meat	meat	NOUN	Number=Sing	35 removed	obj
38	at	at	ADP	_	39 night	case
39	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	35 removed	obl
40	,	,	PUNCT	_	43 had	punct
41	as	as	SCONJ	_	43 had	mark
42	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	43 had	nsubj
43	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	29 catch	advcl
44	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	45 intention	det
45	intention	intention	NOUN	Number=Sing	43 had	obj
46	that	that	SCONJ	_	50 supply	mark
47	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	48 body	nmod:poss
48	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	50 supply	nsubj
49	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	50 supply	aux
50	supply	supply	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	45 intention	acl
51	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	50 supply	obj
52	for	for	ADP	_	56 animals	case
53	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	56 animals	det
54	remaining	remain	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	56 animals	amod
55	six	six	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	56 animals	nummod
56	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	50 supply	obl
57	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 determined	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	determine	past	animal			therefore property	vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	become	past	meat	animal's turn			vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient
3	dry	to-infinitive	meat not said here	animal's turn not said here			vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
4	guard	infinitive	meat not said here	the meat			vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meat=Beneficiary
5	take	would	animal	every precaution			vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent precaution=Theme
6	try	would	animal not said here				vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
7	catch not said to happen	to-infinitive	animal not said here	whoever			vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent whoever=Theme
8	is	past	meat		night	who nsubj; always, remove property	tree rules
9	have	past	animal	no intention			vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent intention=Patient
10	supply	should	animal's body	food		for the remaining six animals	vn fulfilling-13.4.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent food=Theme for animal=Recipient
11	remain	gerund					vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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/pg70959/4/42/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell., sentence 42

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell., sentence 42