Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell., sentence 77
This is one of their old stories, which they brought with them when they were driven south by the Awala tribe, and is still handed on from one generation to another.
Who acts: This, people, Awala tribe · What happens: be, bring, drive, hand on · To what, where: one, old stories, people, one generation
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 (This, people, Awala tribe), 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 | This | this | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 3 one | nsubj |
| 2 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 one | cop |
| 3 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | root | root |
| 4 | of | of | ADP | _ | 7 stories | case |
| 5 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 7 stories | nmod:poss |
| 6 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 stories | amod |
| 7 | stories | story | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 one | nmod |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 11 brought | punct |
| 9 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 11 brought | obj |
| 10 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 brought | nsubj |
| 11 | brought | bring | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 stories | acl:relcl |
| 12 | with | with | ADP | _ | 13 them | case |
| 13 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 brought | obl |
| 14 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 17 driven | advmod |
| 15 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 17 driven | nsubj |
| 16 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 17 driven | aux:pass |
| 17 | driven | drive | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 11 brought | advcl |
| 18 | south | south | ADV | _ | 17 driven | advmod |
| 19 | by | by | ADP | _ | 22 tribe | case |
| 20 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 22 tribe | det |
| 21 | Awala | Awala | PROPN | Number=Sing | 22 tribe | compound |
| 22 | tribe | tribe | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 driven | obl |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 27 handed | punct |
| 24 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 27 handed | cc |
| 25 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 27 handed | aux:pass |
| 26 | still | still | ADV | _ | 27 handed | advmod |
| 27 | handed | hand | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 3 one | conj |
| 28 | on | on | ADP | _ | 27 handed | compound:prt |
| 29 | from | from | ADP | _ | 31 generation | case |
| 30 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 31 generation | nummod |
| 31 | generation | generation | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 handed | obl |
| 32 | to | to | ADP | _ | 33 another | case |
| 33 | another | another | DET | PronType=Ind | 27 handed | obl |
| 34 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 one | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | present | This | one | of people's old stories | tree rules | |||
| 2 | bring | past | people | people's old stories | with stories = story | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent which=Theme | |||
| 3 | drive | past · passive | the Awala tribe | people | south property | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme subject=Trajectory | |||
| 4 | hand on | present · passive | This not said here | from one generation; still | to another | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP PP.initial_location PP.destination»: from generation=Initial_Location to another=Destination |
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/pg70959/4/77/