Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Vii.--how Two Friends Fell Out: the Spider and the Grasshopper., sentence 55
When he rejoined the grasshopper later in the day, he produced his bag, and took out the buck’s head, and told the grasshopper that his dog’s skull was very clever, and had killed the buck.
Who acts: grasshopper, skull · What happens: rejoin, produce, take out, tell, be, kill · To what, where: bag, head, grasshopper, buck · 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 (grasshopper, skull), 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 | 3 rejoined | advmod |
| 2 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 rejoined | nsubj |
| 3 | rejoined | rejoin | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 produced | advcl |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 grasshopper | det |
| 5 | grasshopper | grasshopper | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 later | obl:unmarked |
| 6 | later | late | ADV | Degree=Cmp | 3 rejoined | advmod |
| 7 | in | in | ADP | _ | 9 day | case |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 9 day | det |
| 9 | day | day | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 rejoined | obl |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 rejoined | punct |
| 11 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 12 produced | nsubj |
| 12 | produced | produce | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 13 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 14 bag | nmod:poss |
| 14 | bag | bag | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 produced | obj |
| 15 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 17 took | punct |
| 16 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 took | cc |
| 17 | took | take | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 produced | conj |
| 18 | out | out | ADP | _ | 17 took | compound:prt |
| 19 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 20 buck | det |
| 20 | buck | buck | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 head | nmod:poss |
| 21 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 20 buck | case |
| 22 | head | head | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 took | obj |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 25 told | punct |
| 24 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 25 told | cc |
| 25 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 17 took | conj |
| 26 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 27 grasshopper | det |
| 27 | grasshopper | grasshopper | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 told | iobj |
| 28 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 35 clever | mark |
| 29 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 30 dog | nmod:poss |
| 30 | dog | dog | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 skull | nmod:poss |
| 31 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 30 dog | case |
| 32 | skull | skull | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 clever | nsubj |
| 33 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 35 clever | cop |
| 34 | very | very | ADV | _ | 35 clever | advmod |
| 35 | clever | clever | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 25 told | ccomp |
| 36 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 39 killed | punct |
| 37 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 39 killed | cc |
| 38 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 39 killed | aux |
| 39 | killed | kill | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 12 produced | conj |
| 40 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 41 buck | det |
| 41 | buck | buck | NOUN | Number=Sing | 39 killed | obj |
| 42 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 12 produced | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | rejoin | past | grasshopper | day | late property | vn mix-22.1-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient | |||
| 2 | produce | past | grasshopper | grasshopper's bag | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bag=Result | ||||
| 3 | take out | past | grasshopper not said here | the buck's head | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Theme | ||||
| 4 | tell speech: assert | past | grasshopper not said here | the grasshopper | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent grasshopper=Recipient | ||||
| 5 | is | past | grasshopper's dog's skull | clever property | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | kill | past · perfect | grasshopper not said here | the buck | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent buck=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/pg70959/6/55/