Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell., sentence 47

The tortoise then told his wife that he was tired, and went to bed pretending to be asleep, but he had one eye open all the time, and that eye he kept fixed upon the meat, as he was not going to take any risks, knowing full well that, if the meat disappeared, as it had a habit of doing, he himself would be the next victim.

Who acts: tortoise, meat, habit · What happens: tell, be, go, pretend, have, keep · To what, where: wife, bed, one eye, eye, risks, habit · 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 (tortoise, meat, habit), 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 tortoise	det
2	tortoise	tortoise	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 told	nsubj
3	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	4 told	advmod
4	told	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 wife	nmod:poss
6	wife	wife	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 told	iobj
7	that	that	SCONJ	_	10 tired	mark
8	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 tired	nsubj
9	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 tired	cop
10	tired	tired	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 told	advcl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 went	punct
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 went	cc
13	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 told	conj
14	to	to	ADP	_	15 bed	case
15	bed	bed	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 went	obl
16	pretending	pretend	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	13 went	advcl
17	to	to	PART	_	19 asleep	mark
18	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	19 asleep	cop
19	asleep	asleep	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 pretending	xcomp
20	,	,	PUNCT	_	23 had	punct
21	but	but	CCONJ	_	23 had	cc
22	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	23 had	nsubj
23	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 told	conj
24	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	25 eye	nummod
25	eye	eye	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 had	obj
26	open	open	ADJ	Degree=Pos	23 had	xcomp
27	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	29 time	det:predet
28	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	29 time	det
29	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 had	obj
30	,	,	PUNCT	_	36 fixed	punct
31	and	and	CCONJ	_	36 fixed	cc
32	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	33 eye	det
33	eye	eye	NOUN	Number=Sing	36 fixed	nsubj:pass
34	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	35 kept	nsubj
35	kept	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	33 eye	acl:relcl
36	fixed	fix	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 told	parataxis
37	upon	upon	ADP	_	39 meat	case
38	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	39 meat	det
39	meat	meat	NOUN	Number=Sing	36 fixed	obl
40	,	,	PUNCT	_	45 going	punct
41	as	as	SCONJ	_	45 going	mark
42	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	45 going	nsubj
43	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	45 going	aux
44	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	45 going	advmod
45	going	go	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	36 fixed	conj
46	to	to	PART	_	47 take	mark
47	take	take	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	45 going	xcomp
48	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	49 risks	det
49	risks	risk	NOUN	Number=Plur	47 take	obj
50	,	,	PUNCT	_	51 knowing	punct
51	knowing	know	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	45 going	advcl
52	full	full	ADJ	Degree=Pos	51 knowing	xcomp
53	well	well	ADV	Degree=Pos	54 that	advmod
54	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	52 full	obl
55	,	,	PUNCT	_	59 disappeared	punct
56	if	if	SCONJ	_	59 disappeared	mark
57	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	58 meat	det
58	meat	meat	NOUN	Number=Sing	59 disappeared	nsubj
59	disappeared	disappear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 told	parataxis
60	,	,	PUNCT	_	63 had	punct
61	as	as	SCONJ	_	63 had	mark
62	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	63 had	nsubj
63	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	59 disappeared	advcl
64	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	65 habit	det
65	habit	habit	NOUN	Number=Sing	63 had	obj
66	of	of	SCONJ	_	67 doing	mark
67	doing	do	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	65 habit	acl
68	,	,	PUNCT	_	67 doing	punct
69	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	75 victim	nsubj
70	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Emp Reflex=Yes	69 he	nmod:unmarked
71	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	75 victim	aux
72	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	75 victim	cop
73	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	75 victim	det
74	next	next	ADJ	Degree=Pos	75 victim	amod
75	victim	victim	NOUN	Number=Sing	67 doing	ccomp
76	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 told	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tell speech: assert	past	the tortoise		tortoise's wife		then		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent wife=Recipient
2	is	past	tortoise					tired property	tree rules
3	go	past	the tortoise not said here			bed			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to bed=Initial_Location
4	pretend	gerund	the tortoise not said here						tree rules
5	is	to-infinitive	the tortoise not said here					asleep property	tree rules
6	have	past	tortoise	one eye			time	open property	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eye=Patient
7	keep	past	tortoise	that eye not said here					vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eye=Theme
8	fix	participle · passive		that eye				upon the meat	vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: subject=Patient
9	not go	past · progressive	tortoise						vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
10	take	to-infinitive	tortoise not said here	any risks					vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent risk=Theme
11	know	gerund	tortoise not said here					full property	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
12	disappear a condition, not said to happen	past	the meat						vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
13	have	past	meat	a habit					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent habit=Patient
14	do	gerund	a habit not said here						vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
15	is a	would	tortoise	the next victim					tree rules

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.

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🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell., sentence 47

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell., sentence 47