Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell., sentence 70
On the way they passed the tortoise’s house, so they told Mrs. Tortoise that they had fallen on her husband from a great height, and that his shell was broken into pieces.
Who acts: people · What happens: pass, tell, fall, break · To what, where: house, way, Mrs. Tortoise, great height, shell, pieces · 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 (people), 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 | On | on | ADP | _ | 3 way | case |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 way | det |
| 3 | way | way | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 passed | obl |
| 4 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 passed | nsubj |
| 5 | passed | pass | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 tortoise | det |
| 7 | tortoise | tortoise | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 house | nmod:poss |
| 8 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 7 tortoise | case |
| 9 | house | house | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 passed | obj |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 told | punct |
| 11 | so | so | ADV | _ | 13 told | advmod |
| 12 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 13 told | nsubj |
| 13 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 passed | conj |
| 14 | Mrs. | Mrs. | PROPN | Number=Sing | 15 Tortoise | compound |
| 15 | Tortoise | tortoise | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 told | obj |
| 16 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 19 fallen | mark |
| 17 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 fallen | nsubj |
| 18 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 19 fallen | aux |
| 19 | fallen | fall | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 13 told | ccomp |
| 20 | on | on | ADP | _ | 22 husband | case |
| 21 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 22 husband | nmod:poss |
| 22 | husband | husband | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 fallen | obl |
| 23 | from | from | ADP | _ | 26 height | case |
| 24 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 26 height | det |
| 25 | great | great | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 26 height | amod |
| 26 | height | height | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 fallen | obl |
| 27 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 33 broken | punct |
| 28 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 33 broken | cc |
| 29 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 33 broken | mark |
| 30 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 31 shell | nmod:poss |
| 31 | shell | shell | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 broken | nsubj:pass |
| 32 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 33 broken | aux:pass |
| 33 | broken | break | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 5 passed | parataxis |
| 34 | into | into | ADP | _ | 35 pieces | case |
| 35 | pieces | piece | NOUN | Number=Plur | 33 broken | obl |
| 36 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 passed | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | pass | past | people | the tortoise's house | the way | vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent house=Theme on way=Destination | |||
| 2 | tell speech: assert | past | people | Mrs. Tortoise | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent tortoise=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 3 | fall | past · perfect | people | a great height | on hand's husband | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on husband=Location | |||
| 4 | break | past · passive | tortoise's shell | into pieces result | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP PP.result»: subject=Patient into piece=Result |
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/pg70959/4/70/