Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Iv.--how Elili of Inkum Died, and Was Brought Back to Life Again., sentence 60
Many young men and chiefs tried who were anxious to possess her, but did not succeed, as she had put a ju-ju on them.
Who acts: Many young men, Akoba · What happens: try, be, possess, not succeed, put · To what, where: Akoba, ju ju
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 (Many young men, 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 | Many | many | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 men | amod |
| 2 | young | young | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 men | amod |
| 3 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 6 tried | nsubj |
| 4 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 5 chiefs | cc |
| 5 | chiefs | chief | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 men | conj |
| 6 | tried | try | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 7 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 9 anxious | nsubj |
| 8 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 anxious | cop |
| 9 | anxious | anxious | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 tried | xcomp |
| 10 | to | to | PART | _ | 11 possess | mark |
| 11 | possess | possess | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 9 anxious | xcomp |
| 12 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 possess | obj |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 succeed | punct |
| 14 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 17 succeed | cc |
| 15 | did | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 17 succeed | aux |
| 16 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 17 succeed | advmod |
| 17 | succeed | succeed | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 6 tried | conj |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 22 put | punct |
| 19 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 22 put | mark |
| 20 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 22 put | nsubj |
| 21 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 22 put | aux |
| 22 | put | put | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 17 succeed | parataxis |
| 23 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 26 ju | det |
| 24 | ju | ju | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 ju | compound |
| 25 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 24 ju | punct |
| 26 | ju | ju | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 put | obj |
| 27 | on | on | ADP | _ | 28 them | case |
| 28 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 22 put | obl |
| 29 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 6 tried | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | try | past | Many young men and chiefs | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer | |||||
| 2 | is not said to happen | past | who nsubj; anxious property | tree rules | |||||
| 3 | possess | to-infinitive | Akoba | vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot she=Theme | |||||
| 4 | not succeed | past · do-support | Many young men and chiefs not said here | vn succeed-74-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 5 | put | past · perfect | Akoba | a ju ju | on eyes = eye | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent ju=Theme on they=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/pg70959/5/60/