Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Vii.--how Two Friends Fell Out: the Spider and the Grasshopper., sentence 52
When the spider had finished eating his dog, he put the skull of the dog in his bag, and asked the grasshopper to go in front of him.
Who acts: spider, chief · What happens: finish, eat, put, ask, go · To what, where: dog, skull, bag, grasshopper, front
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 (spider, chief), 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 | When | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 5 finished | advmod |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 spider | det |
| 3 | spider | spider | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 finished | nsubj |
| 4 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 finished | aux |
| 5 | finished | finish | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 11 put | advcl |
| 6 | eating | eat | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 5 finished | xcomp |
| 7 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 8 dog | nmod:poss |
| 8 | dog | dog | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 eating | obj |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 5 finished | punct |
| 10 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 put | nsubj |
| 11 | put | put | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 13 skull | det |
| 13 | skull | skull | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 put | obj |
| 14 | of | of | ADP | _ | 16 dog | case |
| 15 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 16 dog | det |
| 16 | dog | dog | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 skull | nmod |
| 17 | in | in | ADP | _ | 19 bag | case |
| 18 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 19 bag | nmod:poss |
| 19 | bag | bag | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 put | obl |
| 20 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 22 asked | punct |
| 21 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 22 asked | cc |
| 22 | asked | ask | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 11 put | conj |
| 23 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 24 grasshopper | det |
| 24 | grasshopper | grasshopper | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 asked | obj |
| 25 | to | to | PART | _ | 26 go | mark |
| 26 | go | go | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 22 asked | xcomp |
| 27 | in | in | ADP | _ | 28 front | case |
| 28 | front | front | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 go | obl |
| 29 | of | of | ADP | _ | 30 him | case |
| 30 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 28 front | nmod |
| 31 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 11 put | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | finish | past · perfect | the spider | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 2 | eat | gerund | the spider not said here | chief's dog | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dog=Patient | ||||
| 3 | put | past | chief | the skull of the dog | chief's bag | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent skull=Theme in bag=Destination | |||
| 4 | ask speech: ask | past | chief not said here | the grasshopper | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S_INF»: agent=Agent grasshopper=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 5 | go not said to happen | to-infinitive | chief not said here | front of chief | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in front=Location |
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/pg70959/6/52/