Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Iv.--how Elili of Inkum Died, and Was Brought Back to Life Again., sentence 51
VI.--THE STORY OF THE WITCH WHO TRIED TO KILL HER HUSBAND; OR, WHY NATIVE DOGS REFUSE TO OBEY THEIR MASTERS.
Who acts: WITCH, NATIVE DOGS · What happens: try, kill, refuse, not obey · To what, where: HUSBAND, MASTERS, VI
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: who acts (WITCH, NATIVE DOGS), 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 | VI | VI | NUM | NumForm=Roman NumType=Card | root | root |
| 2 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 STORY | punct |
| 3 | -- | -- | PUNCT | _ | 5 STORY | punct |
| 4 | THE | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 STORY | det |
| 5 | STORY | story | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 VI | appos |
| 6 | OF | of | ADP | _ | 8 WITCH | case |
| 7 | THE | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 WITCH | det |
| 8 | WITCH | witch | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 STORY | nmod |
| 9 | WHO | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 10 TRIED | nsubj |
| 10 | TRIED | try | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 WITCH | acl:relcl |
| 11 | TO | to | PART | _ | 12 KILL | mark |
| 12 | KILL | kill | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 10 TRIED | xcomp |
| 13 | HER | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 14 HUSBAND | nmod:poss |
| 14 | HUSBAND | husband | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 KILL | obj |
| 15 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 16 OR | punct |
| 16 | OR | OR | PROPN | Number=Sing | 5 STORY | appos |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 21 REFUSE | punct |
| 18 | WHY | why | ADV | PronType=Int | 21 REFUSE | advmod |
| 19 | NATIVE | native | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 20 DOGS | amod |
| 20 | DOGS | dog | NOUN | Number=Plur | 21 REFUSE | nsubj |
| 21 | REFUSE | refuse | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 STORY | conj |
| 22 | TO | to | PART | _ | 23 OBEY | mark |
| 23 | OBEY | obey | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 21 REFUSE | xcomp |
| 24 | THEIR | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 25 MASTERS | nmod:poss |
| 25 | MASTERS | master | NOUN | Number=Plur | 23 OBEY | obj |
| 26 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 1 VI | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | try | past | the WITCH | vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 2 | kill not said to happen | to-infinitive | the WITCH not said here | E.D's HUSBAND | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent husband=Theme | ||||
| 3 | refuse | present | NATIVE DOGS | vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | |||||
| 4 | not obey | to-infinitive | NATIVE DOGS not said here | DOGS's MASTERS | vn abide_by-93.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent master=Theme |
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/pg70959/5/51/