Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Iv.--how Elili of Inkum Died, and Was Brought Back to Life Again., sentence 54
She was a yellow (light skin) woman, and had many hairs from the elephant’s tail, and beads round her neck.
Who acts: Akoba · What happens: be, have, bead · To what, where: many hairs, tail, neck
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 (Akoba), 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 | She | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 yellow | nsubj |
| 2 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 yellow | cop |
| 3 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 4 yellow | det |
| 4 | yellow | yellow | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 5 | ( | ( | PUNCT | _ | 7 skin | punct |
| 6 | light | light | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 skin | compound |
| 7 | skin | skin | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 yellow | parataxis |
| 8 | ) | ) | PUNCT | _ | 7 skin | punct |
| 9 | woman | woman | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 skin | conj |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 had | punct |
| 11 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 12 had | cc |
| 12 | had | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 yellow | conj |
| 13 | many | many | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 14 hairs | amod |
| 14 | hairs | hair | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 had | obj |
| 15 | from | from | ADP | _ | 19 tail | case |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 elephant | det |
| 17 | elephant | elephant | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 tail | nmod:poss |
| 18 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 17 elephant | case |
| 19 | tail | tail | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 had | obl |
| 20 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 22 beads | punct |
| 21 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 22 beads | cc |
| 22 | beads | bead | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 yellow | conj |
| 23 | round | round | ADP | _ | 25 neck | case |
| 24 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 25 neck | nmod:poss |
| 25 | neck | neck | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 beads | obl |
| 26 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 yellow | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | Akoba | light skin and woman parataxis; yellow property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | have | past | Akoba not said here | many hairs | the elephant's tail | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hair=Patient | |||
| 3 | bead | present | Akoba not said here | Akoba's neck | vn substance_emission-43.4-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme round neck=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/pg70959/5/54/