Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Vii.--how Two Friends Fell Out: the Spider and the Grasshopper., sentence 75
When the girl baby had become six years old, Ewa Abagi dressed herself and her daughter up in their best clothes, and crossed over the river to Okuni with the slave woman Mossim carrying her load.
Who acts: girl baby, Ewa, slave woman · What happens: become, dress up, cross, carry · To what, where: EWA, best clothes, Okuni, river, load
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 (girl baby, Ewa, slave woman), 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 | SCONJ | _ | 6 become | mark |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 baby | det |
| 3 | girl | girl | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 baby | compound |
| 4 | baby | baby | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 become | nsubj |
| 5 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 become | aux |
| 6 | become | become | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 13 dressed | advcl |
| 7 | six | six | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 8 years | nummod |
| 8 | years | year | NOUN | Number=Plur | 9 old | obl:unmarked |
| 9 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 6 become | xcomp |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 6 become | punct |
| 11 | Ewa | Ewa | PROPN | Number=Sing | 13 dressed | nsubj |
| 12 | Abagi | Abagi | PROPN | Number=Sing | 11 Ewa | flat |
| 13 | dressed | dress | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 14 | herself | herself | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes | 13 dressed | obj |
| 15 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 17 daughter | cc |
| 16 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 17 daughter | nmod:poss |
| 17 | daughter | daughter | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 herself | conj |
| 18 | up | up | ADP | _ | 13 dressed | compound:prt |
| 19 | in | in | ADP | _ | 22 clothes | case |
| 20 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 22 clothes | nmod:poss |
| 21 | best | good | ADJ | Degree=Sup | 22 clothes | amod |
| 22 | clothes | clothes | NOUN | Number=Ptan | 13 dressed | obl |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 25 crossed | punct |
| 24 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 25 crossed | cc |
| 25 | crossed | cross | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 13 dressed | conj |
| 26 | over | over | ADP | _ | 28 river | case |
| 27 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 28 river | det |
| 28 | river | river | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 crossed | obl |
| 29 | to | to | ADP | _ | 30 Okuni | case |
| 30 | Okuni | Okuni | PROPN | Number=Sing | 25 crossed | obl |
| 31 | with | with | ADP | _ | 34 woman | case |
| 32 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 34 woman | det |
| 33 | slave | slave | NOUN | Number=Sing | 34 woman | compound |
| 34 | woman | woman | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 crossed | obl |
| 35 | Mossim | Mossim | PROPN | Number=Sing | 34 woman | appos |
| 36 | carrying | carry | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 34 woman | acl |
| 37 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 38 load | nmod:poss |
| 38 | load | load | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 carrying | obj |
| 39 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 13 dressed | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | become | past · perfect | the girl baby | old property | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient | ||||
| 2 | dress up | past | Ewa | EWA | MEN's best clothes | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent herself=Patient | |||
| 3 | cross | participle | Ewa not said here | Okuni | the river | with the slave woman | vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V PP.initial_location PP.destination»: agent=Theme over river=Initial_Location to okuni=Destination | ||
| 4 | carry | gerund | the slave woman not said here | EWA's load | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent load=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/pg70959/6/75/