Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell., sentence 68

Then they all began to climb the rope together, leaving the tortoise on the ground, and just as he was about to commence to climb, the others having already reached halfway, the hare cut the rope with one cut of his sharp knife, and all the animals fell down upon the tortoise, smashing his smooth shell into small pieces, and hurting themselves very much.

Who acts: people, rope, hare, animals · What happens: begin, climb, leave, be, commence, reach · To what, where: rope, tortoise, ground, others, smooth shell, small pieces

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 (people, rope, hare, animals), 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	Then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	4 began	advmod
2	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 began	nsubj
3	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	2 they	det
4	began	begin	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 climb	mark
6	climb	climb	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 began	xcomp
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 rope	det
8	rope	rope	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 climb	obj
9	together	together	ADV	_	6 climb	advmod
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 leaving	punct
11	leaving	leave	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 climb	advcl
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 tortoise	det
13	tortoise	tortoise	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 leaving	obj
14	on	on	ADP	_	16 ground	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 ground	det
16	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 leaving	obl
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	23 about	punct
18	and	and	CCONJ	_	23 about	cc
19	just	just	ADV	_	23 about	advmod
20	as	as	SCONJ	_	23 about	mark
21	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	23 about	nsubj
22	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	23 about	cop
23	about	about	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 began	advcl
24	to	to	PART	_	25 commence	mark
25	commence	commence	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	23 about	xcomp
26	to	to	PART	_	27 climb	mark
27	climb	climb	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	25 commence	xcomp
28	,	,	PUNCT	_	33 reached	punct
29	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	30 others	det
30	others	other	NOUN	Number=Plur	33 reached	nsubj:pass
31	having	have	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	33 reached	aux
32	already	already	ADV	_	33 reached	advmod
33	reached	reach	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 began	parataxis
34	halfway	halfway	ADV	_	33 reached	advmod
35	,	,	PUNCT	_	38 cut	punct
36	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	37 hare	det
37	hare	hare	NOUN	Number=Sing	38 cut	nsubj
38	cut	cut	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 began	parataxis
39	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	40 rope	det
40	rope	rope	NOUN	Number=Sing	38 cut	obj
41	with	with	ADP	_	43 cut	case
42	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	43 cut	nummod
43	cut	cut	NOUN	Number=Sing	38 cut	obl
44	of	of	ADP	_	47 knife	case
45	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	47 knife	nmod:poss
46	sharp	sharp	ADJ	Degree=Pos	47 knife	amod
47	knife	knife	NOUN	Number=Sing	43 cut	nmod
48	,	,	PUNCT	_	53 fell	punct
49	and	and	CCONJ	_	53 fell	cc
50	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	52 animals	det:predet
51	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	52 animals	det
52	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	53 fell	nsubj
53	fell	fall	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 began	parataxis
54	down	down	ADV	_	53 fell	advmod
55	upon	upon	ADP	_	57 tortoise	case
56	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	57 tortoise	det
57	tortoise	tortoise	NOUN	Number=Sing	53 fell	obl
58	,	,	PUNCT	_	59 smashing	punct
59	smashing	smash	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	53 fell	advcl
60	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	62 shell	nmod:poss
61	smooth	smooth	ADJ	Degree=Pos	62 shell	amod
62	shell	shell	NOUN	Number=Sing	59 smashing	obj
63	into	into	ADP	_	65 pieces	case
64	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	65 pieces	amod
65	pieces	piece	NOUN	Number=Plur	59 smashing	obl
66	,	,	PUNCT	_	68 hurting	punct
67	and	and	CCONJ	_	68 hurting	cc
68	hurting	hurt	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 began	conj
69	themselves	themselves	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	68 hurting	obj
70	very	very	ADV	_	71 much	advmod
71	much	much	ADV	_	68 hurting	advmod
72	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 began	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	begin	past	people			then		vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
2	climb	to-infinitive	people not said here	the rope			together property	vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial_Location rope=Theme
3	leave	gerund	people not said here	the tortoise	the ground			vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent tortoise=Theme on ground=Location
4	is	past	rope				about property	tree rules
5	commence	to-infinitive	rope not said here					vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
6	climb	to-infinitive	rope not said here					vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
7	reach	gerund · perfect · passive		the others			halfway property	vn body_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: subject=Theme
8	cut	past	the hare	the rope			with one cut of hare's sharp knife	vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rope=Patient with cut=Instrument
9	fall down	past	all animals		the tortoise		down property	vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme upon tortoise=Location
10	smash	gerund	all animals not said here	hare's smooth shell	small pieces			vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent shell=Theme into piece=Destination
11	hurt	gerund	people not said here	people				vn hurt-40.8.3-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer themselves=Patient

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 68

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell., sentence 68