Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Vii.--how Two Friends Fell Out: the Spider and the Grasshopper., sentence 57
That night they slept in the bush, and the next day, when they got near the first town they had passed through when leaving home, the dog again dashed off into the forest, and chased a bush cow which he bit very badly in the leg.
Who acts: spider, first town, dog, bush cow · What happens: sleep, get, pass, leave, dash off, chase · To what, where: bush, first town, spider, forest, bush cow, leg
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, first town, dog, bush cow), 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 | That | that | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 2 night | det |
| 2 | night | night | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 slept | obl:unmarked |
| 3 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 4 slept | nsubj |
| 4 | slept | sleep | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | in | in | ADP | _ | 7 bush | case |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 bush | det |
| 7 | bush | bush | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 slept | obl |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 day | punct |
| 9 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 12 day | cc |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 day | det |
| 11 | next | next | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 12 day | amod |
| 12 | day | day | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 slept | obl |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 got | punct |
| 14 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 16 got | advmod |
| 15 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 got | nsubj |
| 16 | got | get | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 slept | parataxis |
| 17 | near | near | ADP | _ | 20 town | case |
| 18 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 20 town | det |
| 19 | first | first | ADJ | Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord | 20 town | amod |
| 20 | town | town | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 got | obl |
| 21 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 23 passed | nsubj:pass |
| 22 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 23 passed | aux |
| 23 | passed | pass | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 20 town | acl:relcl |
| 24 | through | through | SCONJ | _ | 26 leaving | mark |
| 25 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 26 leaving | advmod |
| 26 | leaving | leave | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 23 passed | advcl |
| 27 | home | home | ADV | _ | 26 leaving | advmod |
| 28 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 30 dog | punct |
| 29 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 30 dog | det |
| 30 | dog | dog | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 town | conj |
| 31 | again | again | ADV | _ | 32 dashed | advmod |
| 32 | dashed | dash | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 30 dog | acl:relcl |
| 33 | off | off | ADP | _ | 32 dashed | compound:prt |
| 34 | into | into | ADP | _ | 36 forest | case |
| 35 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 36 forest | det |
| 36 | forest | forest | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 dashed | obl |
| 37 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 39 chased | punct |
| 38 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 39 chased | cc |
| 39 | chased | chase | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 16 got | conj |
| 40 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 42 cow | det |
| 41 | bush | bush | NOUN | Number=Sing | 42 cow | compound |
| 42 | cow | cow | NOUN | Number=Sing | 39 chased | obj |
| 43 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 45 bit | nsubj |
| 44 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 45 bit | nsubj |
| 45 | bit | bite | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 42 cow | acl:relcl |
| 46 | very | very | ADV | _ | 47 badly | advmod |
| 47 | badly | badly | ADV | Degree=Pos | 45 bit | advmod |
| 48 | in | in | ADP | _ | 50 leg | case |
| 49 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 50 leg | det |
| 50 | leg | leg | NOUN | Number=Sing | 45 bit | obl |
| 51 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 slept | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | sleep | past | spider | the bush | day; night | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent in bush=Location | |||
| 2 | get | past | spider | the first town and the dog | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer | ||||
| 3 | pass | past · perfect · passive | the first town and the dog not said here | spider | vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V NP»: subject=Trajectory | ||||
| 4 | leave | gerund | the first town and the dog not said here | home property | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 5 | dash off | past | the dog not said here | the forest | again | vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into forest=Destination | |||
| 6 | chase | past | spider not said here | a bush cow | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cow=Theme | ||||
| 7 | bite | past | a bush cow | the leg | grasshopper nsubj; badly property | vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent in leg=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/pg70959/6/57/