Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Vii.--how Two Friends Fell Out: the Spider and the Grasshopper., sentence 124
Thomas, District Clerk, Inkom, told me this grave incident, and said it happened in his presence some years ago at Calabar, when he was time-keeper in the P.W.D.
Who acts: Thomas, it, Calabar · What happens: tell, say, happen, be · To what, where: grave incident, me, presence, time keeper, P.W.D · Speech: someone speaks here
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 (Thomas, it, Calabar), 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 | Thomas | Thomas | PROPN | Number=Sing | 8 told | nsubj |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 Clerk | punct |
| 3 | District | District | PROPN | Number=Sing | 4 Clerk | compound |
| 4 | Clerk | Clerk | PROPN | Number=Sing | 1 Thomas | conj |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 6 Inkom | punct |
| 6 | Inkom | Inkom | PROPN | Number=Sing | 4 Clerk | conj |
| 7 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Thomas | punct |
| 8 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 9 | me | I | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 8 told | iobj |
| 10 | this | this | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 12 incident | det |
| 11 | grave | grave | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 12 incident | amod |
| 12 | incident | incident | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 told | obj |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 said | punct |
| 14 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 15 said | cc |
| 15 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 told | conj |
| 16 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 17 happened | nsubj |
| 17 | happened | happen | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 15 said | ccomp |
| 18 | in | in | ADP | _ | 20 presence | case |
| 19 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 20 presence | nmod:poss |
| 20 | presence | presence | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 happened | obl |
| 21 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 22 years | det |
| 22 | years | year | NOUN | Number=Plur | 23 ago | obl:unmarked |
| 23 | ago | ago | ADV | _ | 17 happened | advmod |
| 24 | at | at | ADP | _ | 25 Calabar | case |
| 25 | Calabar | Calabar | PROPN | Number=Sing | 17 happened | obl |
| 26 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 32 keeper | punct |
| 27 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 32 keeper | advmod |
| 28 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 32 keeper | nsubj |
| 29 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 32 keeper | cop |
| 30 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 keeper | compound |
| 31 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 30 time | punct |
| 32 | keeper | keeper | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 said | ccomp |
| 33 | in | in | ADP | _ | 35 P.W.D | case |
| 34 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 35 P.W.D | det |
| 35 | P.W.D | P.W.D | PROPN | Number=Sing | 32 keeper | nmod |
| 36 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 told | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | tell speech: assert | past | Thomas and District Clerk and Inkom | this grave incident | me | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient incident=Topic | |||
| 2 | say speech: assert | past | Thomas and District Clerk and Inkom not said here | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 3 | happen | past | it | Inkom's presence | at Calabar; ago property | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in presence=Location | |||
| 4 | is a | past | Calabar | time keeper | the P.W.D | tree rules |
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/pg70959/6/124/