Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Vii.--how Two Friends Fell Out: the Spider and the Grasshopper., sentence 89
Now, one of the young men of the town, who had been down the river trading, knew Ewa Abagi very well indeed, and, when he saw the slave woman, he recognized her as the servant, so he told Chief Awor.
Who acts: town, one, many · What happens: be, know, see, recognize, tell · To what, where: Ewa, slave woman, woman, Chief · 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 (town, one, many), 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 | Now | now | ADV | PronType=Dem | 20 knew | advmod |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 1 Now | punct |
| 3 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 20 knew | nsubj |
| 4 | of | of | ADP | _ | 7 men | case |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 men | det |
| 6 | young | young | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 men | amod |
| 7 | men | man | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 one | nmod |
| 8 | of | of | ADP | _ | 10 town | case |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 town | det |
| 10 | town | town | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 men | nmod |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 trading | punct |
| 12 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 18 trading | nsubj |
| 13 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 18 trading | aux |
| 14 | been | be | AUX | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 18 trading | cop |
| 15 | down | down | ADP | _ | 18 trading | case |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 18 trading | det |
| 17 | river | river | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 trading | compound |
| 18 | trading | trading | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 town | appos |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 trading | punct |
| 20 | knew | know | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 21 | Ewa | Ewa | PROPN | Number=Sing | 20 knew | obj |
| 22 | Abagi | Abagi | PROPN | Number=Sing | 21 Ewa | flat |
| 23 | very | very | ADV | _ | 24 well | advmod |
| 24 | well | well | ADV | Degree=Pos | 25 indeed | advmod |
| 25 | indeed | indeed | ADV | _ | 20 knew | advmod |
| 26 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 31 saw | punct |
| 27 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 31 saw | cc |
| 28 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 31 saw | punct |
| 29 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 31 saw | advmod |
| 30 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 31 saw | nsubj |
| 31 | saw | see | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 20 knew | parataxis |
| 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 | 31 saw | obj |
| 35 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 37 recognized | punct |
| 36 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 37 recognized | nsubj |
| 37 | recognized | recognize | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 31 saw | conj |
| 38 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 37 recognized | obj |
| 39 | as | as | ADP | _ | 41 servant | case |
| 40 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 41 servant | det |
| 41 | servant | servant | NOUN | Number=Sing | 37 recognized | obl |
| 42 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 45 told | punct |
| 43 | so | so | ADV | _ | 45 told | advmod |
| 44 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 45 told | nsubj |
| 45 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 20 knew | parataxis |
| 46 | Chief | Chief | PROPN | Number=Sing | 45 told | iobj |
| 47 | Awor | Awor | PROPN | Number=Sing | 46 Chief | flat |
| 48 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 20 knew | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past · perfect | the town | down the river trading | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | know | past | one of the young men of the town | Ewa | now | indeed property | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer ewa=Stimulus | ||
| 3 | see | past | many | the slave woman | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer woman=Stimulus | ||||
| 4 | recognize | past | many | woman | as the servant | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer she=Stimulus as servant=Attribute | |||
| 5 | tell speech: assert | past | many | Chief | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent chief=Recipient |
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/pg70959/6/89/