Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Vii.--how Two Friends Fell Out: the Spider and the Grasshopper., sentence 113
This is one of the reasons why slaves are always killed and put into the grave of their master or mistress when they die, as a warning to other slaves not to try to kill their owners.
Who acts: This, slaves · What happens: be, kill, put, die, not try · To what, where: one, slaves, grave, owners
This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Vii.--how Two Friends Fell Out: the Spider and the Grasshopper.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (This, slaves), 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 | This | this | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 3 one | nsubj |
| 2 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 one | cop |
| 3 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | root | root |
| 4 | of | of | ADP | _ | 6 reasons | case |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 reasons | det |
| 6 | reasons | reason | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 one | nmod |
| 7 | why | why | ADV | PronType=Int | 11 killed | advmod |
| 8 | slaves | slave | NOUN | Number=Plur | 11 killed | nsubj:pass |
| 9 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 11 killed | aux:pass |
| 10 | always | always | ADV | PronType=Tot | 11 killed | advmod |
| 11 | killed | kill | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 6 reasons | acl:relcl |
| 12 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 13 put | cc |
| 13 | put | put | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 11 killed | conj |
| 14 | into | into | ADP | _ | 16 grave | case |
| 15 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 16 grave | det |
| 16 | grave | grave | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 put | obl |
| 17 | of | of | ADP | _ | 19 master | case |
| 18 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 19 master | nmod:poss |
| 19 | master | master | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 grave | nmod |
| 20 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 21 mistress | cc |
| 21 | mistress | mistress | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 master | conj |
| 22 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 24 die | advmod |
| 23 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 24 die | nsubj |
| 24 | die | die | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 13 put | advcl |
| 25 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 warning | punct |
| 26 | as | as | ADP | _ | 28 warning | case |
| 27 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 28 warning | det |
| 28 | warning | warning | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 die | obl |
| 29 | to | to | ADP | _ | 31 slaves | case |
| 30 | other | other | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 31 slaves | amod |
| 31 | slaves | slave | NOUN | Number=Plur | 28 warning | nmod |
| 32 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 34 try | advmod |
| 33 | to | to | PART | _ | 34 try | mark |
| 34 | try | try | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 24 die | advcl |
| 35 | to | to | PART | _ | 36 kill | mark |
| 36 | kill | kill | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 34 try | xcomp |
| 37 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 38 owners | nmod:poss |
| 38 | owners | owner | NOUN | Number=Plur | 36 kill | obj |
| 39 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 one | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | present | This | one | of the reasons | tree rules | |||
| 2 | kill | present · passive | slaves | always property | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme | ||||
| 3 | put | participle | the grave of slaves's master or mistress | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 4 | die | present | slaves = slave | as a warning to other slaves | vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute | ||||
| 5 | not try | to-infinitive | slaves = slave not said here | vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 6 | kill not said to happen | to-infinitive | slaves = slave not said here | slaves's owners | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent owner=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/pg70959/6/113/