Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Vii.--how Two Friends Fell Out: the Spider and the Grasshopper., sentence 50
He then tried to get the grasshopper to kill his dog, but he refused, saying, “The dog was given to me by the chief as a present and not for food.
Who acts: chief, grasshopper · What happens: try, get, kill, refuse, say, give · To what, where: grasshopper, dog, chief · 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 (chief, grasshopper), 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 | He | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 tried | nsubj |
| 2 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 3 tried | advmod |
| 3 | tried | try | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | to | to | PART | _ | 5 get | mark |
| 5 | get | get | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 tried | xcomp |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 grasshopper | det |
| 7 | grasshopper | grasshopper | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 get | obj |
| 8 | to | to | PART | _ | 9 kill | mark |
| 9 | kill | kill | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 5 get | xcomp |
| 10 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 11 dog | nmod:poss |
| 11 | dog | dog | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 kill | obj |
| 12 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 15 refused | punct |
| 13 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 15 refused | cc |
| 14 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 15 refused | nsubj |
| 15 | refused | refuse | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 tried | conj |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 saying | punct |
| 17 | saying | say | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 15 refused | advcl |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 23 given | punct |
| 19 | “ | " | PUNCT | _ | 23 given | punct |
| 20 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 21 dog | det |
| 21 | dog | dog | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 given | nsubj:pass |
| 22 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 23 given | aux:pass |
| 23 | given | give | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 17 saying | ccomp |
| 24 | to | to | ADP | _ | 25 me | case |
| 25 | me | I | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs | 23 given | obl |
| 26 | by | by | ADP | _ | 28 chief | case |
| 27 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 28 chief | det |
| 28 | chief | chief | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 given | obl |
| 29 | as | as | ADP | _ | 31 present | case |
| 30 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 31 present | det |
| 31 | present | present | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 given | obl |
| 32 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 35 food | cc |
| 33 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 35 food | advmod |
| 34 | for | for | ADP | _ | 35 food | case |
| 35 | food | food | NOUN | Number=Sing | 31 present | conj |
| 36 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 tried | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | try | past | chief | then | vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | ||||
| 2 | get not said to happen | to-infinitive | chief not said here | the grasshopper | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | kill | to-infinitive | the grasshopper not said here | chief's dog | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dog=Theme | ||||
| 4 | refuse | past | chief | vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 5 | say speech: assert | gerund | chief not said here | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 6 | give in a quote | past · passive | the chief | the dog | chief | as a present and food | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent subject=Theme to i=Recipient |
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/pg70959/6/50/