Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Vii.--how Two Friends Fell Out: the Spider and the Grasshopper., sentence 121
The natives who were working on the road were afraid to touch anything in the grave, but a native foreman, who came from another country where they held different beliefs, opened a bottle of gin and drank some of it.
Who acts: natives, native foreman, things · What happens: work, be, touch, come, hold, open · To what, where: anything, grave, country, different beliefs, bottle, some
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 (natives, native foreman, things), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 natives | det |
| 2 | natives | native | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 afraid | nsubj |
| 3 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 5 working | nsubj |
| 4 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 working | aux |
| 5 | working | work | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 2 natives | acl:relcl |
| 6 | on | on | ADP | _ | 8 road | case |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 road | det |
| 8 | road | road | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 working | obl |
| 9 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 afraid | cop |
| 10 | afraid | afraid | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 11 | to | to | PART | _ | 12 touch | mark |
| 12 | touch | touch | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 10 afraid | xcomp |
| 13 | anything | anything | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Ind | 12 touch | obj |
| 14 | in | in | ADP | _ | 16 grave | case |
| 15 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 16 grave | det |
| 16 | grave | grave | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 anything | nmod |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 34 opened | punct |
| 18 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 34 opened | cc |
| 19 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 21 foreman | det |
| 20 | native | native | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 21 foreman | amod |
| 21 | foreman | foreman | NOUN | Number=Sing | 34 opened | nsubj |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 came | punct |
| 23 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 24 came | nsubj |
| 24 | came | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 21 foreman | acl:relcl |
| 25 | from | from | ADP | _ | 27 country | case |
| 26 | another | another | DET | PronType=Ind | 27 country | det |
| 27 | country | country | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 came | obl |
| 28 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 30 held | advmod |
| 29 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 30 held | nsubj |
| 30 | held | hold | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 27 country | acl:relcl |
| 31 | different | different | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 32 beliefs | amod |
| 32 | beliefs | belief | NOUN | Number=Plur | 30 held | obj |
| 33 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 21 foreman | punct |
| 34 | opened | open | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 afraid | parataxis |
| 35 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 36 bottle | det |
| 36 | bottle | bottle | NOUN | Number=Sing | 34 opened | obj |
| 37 | of | of | ADP | _ | 38 gin | case |
| 38 | gin | gin | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 bottle | nmod |
| 39 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 40 drank | cc |
| 40 | drank | drink | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 34 opened | conj |
| 41 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 40 drank | obj |
| 42 | of | of | ADP | _ | 43 it | case |
| 43 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 41 some | nmod |
| 44 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 10 afraid | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | work | past · progressive | the natives | on the road | vn employment-95.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent on road=Theme | ||||
| 2 | is | past | the natives | afraid property | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | touch | to-infinitive | the natives not said here | anything | the grave | vn contiguous_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme anything=Co-Theme | |||
| 4 | come | past | a native foreman | another country | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme from country=Initial_Location | ||||
| 5 | hold | past | things = thing | different beliefs | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent belief=Theme | ||||
| 6 | open | past | a native foreman | a bottle of gin | vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location bottle=Theme | ||||
| 7 | drink | past | a native foreman not said here | some of road | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent some=Patient |
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/pg70959/6/121/