Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Iv.--how Elili of Inkum Died, and Was Brought Back to Life Again., sentence 38
One was placed under Indoma’s head as a pillow, another under his feet to make him more comfortable, and the other two were placed one on either side of the corpse, so that it was surrounded by living boys.
What happens: place, make, surround, live · To what, where: One, head, Indoma, other two, corpse, boys
This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Iv.--how Elili of Inkum Died, and Was Brought Back to Life Again.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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 | One | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 3 placed | nsubj:pass |
| 2 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 placed | aux:pass |
| 3 | placed | place | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 4 | under | under | ADP | _ | 7 head | case |
| 5 | Indoma | Indoma | PROPN | Number=Sing | 7 head | nmod:poss |
| 6 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 5 Indoma | case |
| 7 | head | head | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 placed | obl |
| 8 | as | as | ADP | _ | 10 pillow | case |
| 9 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 10 pillow | det |
| 10 | pillow | pillow | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 placed | obl |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 another | punct |
| 12 | another | another | DET | PronType=Ind | 10 pillow | appos |
| 13 | under | under | ADP | _ | 15 feet | case |
| 14 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 15 feet | nmod:poss |
| 15 | feet | foot | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 another | nmod |
| 16 | to | to | PART | _ | 17 make | mark |
| 17 | make | make | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 placed | advcl |
| 18 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 17 make | obj |
| 19 | more | more | ADV | Degree=Cmp | 20 comfortable | advmod |
| 20 | comfortable | comfortable | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 17 make | xcomp |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 27 placed | punct |
| 22 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 27 placed | cc |
| 23 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 25 two | det |
| 24 | other | other | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 25 two | amod |
| 25 | two | two | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 27 placed | nsubj:pass |
| 26 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 27 placed | aux:pass |
| 27 | placed | place | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 3 placed | conj |
| 28 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 27 placed | obj |
| 29 | on | on | ADP | _ | 31 side | case |
| 30 | either | either | DET | PronType=Ind | 31 side | det |
| 31 | side | side | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 one | nmod |
| 32 | of | of | ADP | _ | 34 corpse | case |
| 33 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 34 corpse | det |
| 34 | corpse | corpse | NOUN | Number=Sing | 31 side | nmod |
| 35 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 40 surrounded | punct |
| 36 | so | so | SCONJ | ExtPos=SCONJ | 40 surrounded | mark |
| 37 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 36 so | fixed |
| 38 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 40 surrounded | nsubj:pass |
| 39 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 40 surrounded | aux:pass |
| 40 | surrounded | surround | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 27 placed | conj |
| 41 | by | by | SCONJ | _ | 42 living | mark |
| 42 | living | live | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 40 surrounded | advcl |
| 43 | boys | boy | NOUN | Number=Plur | 42 living | obj |
| 44 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 placed | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | place | past · passive | One | Indoma's head | as a pillow | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme under head=Destination | |||
| 2 | make | to-infinitive | Indoma | comfortable property | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset he=Product | ||||
| 3 | place | past · passive | the other two | one obj | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP ADVP»: subject=Theme one=Destination | ||||
| 4 | surround | past · passive | corpse | vn contiguous_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: subject=Co-Theme | |||||
| 5 | live | gerund | boys | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme boy=Location |
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/pg70959/5/38/