Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Iv.--how Elili of Inkum Died, and Was Brought Back to Life Again., sentence 78
Immediately the dogs got the message they started off to help their master, but the witch Akoba caused a flood to overflow the path, so that the dogs could not track her.
Who acts: dogs, witch · What happens: get, start off, help, cause, overflow, not track · To what, where: message, master, flood, path, WITCH
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 (dogs, witch), 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 | Immediately | immediately | ADV | _ | 4 got | advmod |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 dogs | det |
| 3 | dogs | dog | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 got | nsubj |
| 4 | got | get | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 message | det |
| 6 | message | message | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 got | obj |
| 7 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 8 started | nsubj |
| 8 | started | start | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 message | acl:relcl |
| 9 | off | off | ADP | _ | 8 started | compound:prt |
| 10 | to | to | PART | _ | 11 help | mark |
| 11 | help | help | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 8 started | advcl |
| 12 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 13 master | nmod:poss |
| 13 | master | master | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 help | obj |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 caused | punct |
| 15 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 19 caused | cc |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 witch | det |
| 17 | witch | witch | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 caused | nsubj |
| 18 | Akoba | Akoba | PROPN | Number=Sing | 17 witch | appos |
| 19 | caused | cause | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 got | parataxis |
| 20 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 21 flood | det |
| 21 | flood | flood | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 caused | obj |
| 22 | to | to | PART | _ | 23 overflow | mark |
| 23 | overflow | overflow | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 21 flood | acl |
| 24 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 25 path | det |
| 25 | path | path | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 overflow | obj |
| 26 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 33 track | punct |
| 27 | so | so | SCONJ | ExtPos=SCONJ | 33 track | mark |
| 28 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 27 so | fixed |
| 29 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 30 dogs | det |
| 30 | dogs | dog | NOUN | Number=Plur | 33 track | nsubj |
| 31 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 33 track | aux |
| 32 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 33 track | advmod |
| 33 | track | track | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 19 caused | conj |
| 34 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 33 track | obj |
| 35 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 got | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | get | past | the dogs | the message | immediately property | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer message=Stimulus | |||
| 2 | start off | past | DOGS = dog | the message not said here | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent message=Eventuality | ||||
| 3 | help | to-infinitive | DOGS = dog not said here | DOGS's master | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent master=Beneficiary | ||||
| 4 | cause | past | the witch | a flood | vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition flood=Patient | ||||
| 5 | overflow | to-infinitive | the witch not said here | the path | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | not track | could | the dogs | WITCH | vn stalk-35.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=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/pg70959/5/78/