Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Vii.--how Two Friends Fell Out: the Spider and the Grasshopper., sentence 61
The hunters then got their bows and arrows, and having been shown the tracks of the bush cow by the grasshopper, they had little difficulty in tracking it by its blood, and eventually killed it.
Who acts: hunters, grasshopper · What happens: get, show, have, track, kill · To what, where: bows, tracks, little difficulty, difficulty
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 (hunters, 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 hunters | det |
| 2 | hunters | hunter | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 got | nsubj |
| 3 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 4 got | advmod |
| 4 | got | get | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 6 bows | nmod:poss |
| 6 | bows | bow | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 got | obj |
| 7 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 8 arrows | cc |
| 8 | arrows | arrow | NOUN | Number=Plur | 6 bows | conj |
| 9 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 shown | punct |
| 10 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 13 shown | cc |
| 11 | having | have | AUX | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 13 shown | aux |
| 12 | been | be | AUX | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 13 shown | aux:pass |
| 13 | shown | show | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 4 got | conj |
| 14 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 tracks | det |
| 15 | tracks | track | NOUN | Number=Plur | 13 shown | obj |
| 16 | of | of | ADP | _ | 19 cow | case |
| 17 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 19 cow | det |
| 18 | bush | bush | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 cow | compound |
| 19 | cow | cow | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 tracks | nmod |
| 20 | by | by | ADP | _ | 22 grasshopper | case |
| 21 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 22 grasshopper | det |
| 22 | grasshopper | grasshopper | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 shown | obl |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 25 had | punct |
| 24 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 25 had | nsubj |
| 25 | had | have | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 got | conj |
| 26 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 27 difficulty | amod |
| 27 | difficulty | difficulty | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 had | obj |
| 28 | in | in | SCONJ | _ | 29 tracking | mark |
| 29 | tracking | track | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 25 had | advcl |
| 30 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 29 tracking | obj |
| 31 | by | by | ADP | _ | 33 blood | case |
| 32 | its | its | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 33 blood | nmod:poss |
| 33 | blood | blood | NOUN | Number=Sing | 29 tracking | obl |
| 34 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 37 killed | punct |
| 35 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 37 killed | cc |
| 36 | eventually | eventually | ADV | _ | 37 killed | advmod |
| 37 | killed | kill | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 got | conj |
| 38 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 37 killed | obj |
| 39 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 got | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | get | past | the hunters | hunters's bows and arrows | then | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer bow=Stimulus | |||
| 2 | show | gerund · perfect · passive | the grasshopper | the tracks of the bush cow | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent track=Recipient | ||||
| 3 | have | past | hunters = hunter | little difficulty | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent difficulty=Patient | ||||
| 4 | track | gerund | hunters = hunter not said here | difficulty | by difficulty's blood | vn stalk-35.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent it=Theme by blood=Location | |||
| 5 | kill | past | the hunters not said here | difficulty | eventually property | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=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/pg70959/6/61/