Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inkum and Enfitop., sentence 123
The old woman told her daughter that Ogor had stolen out of the house as he had done on the previous day, and she thought he had most likely gone to join the small boys’ company as she had heard them playing in the town.
Who acts: old woman, Ogor, Omegha, boys · What happens: tell, steal, do, think, go, join · To what, where: daughter, Ogor, house, company, boys, town · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inkum and Enfitop.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (old woman, Ogor, Omegha, boys), 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 | 3 woman | det |
| 2 | old | old | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 3 woman | amod |
| 3 | woman | woman | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 told | nsubj |
| 4 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | her | her | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 6 daughter | nmod:poss |
| 6 | daughter | daughter | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 told | iobj |
| 7 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 10 stolen | mark |
| 8 | Ogor | Ogor | PROPN | Number=Sing | 10 stolen | nsubj:pass |
| 9 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 stolen | aux |
| 10 | stolen | steal | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 4 told | ccomp |
| 11 | out | out | ADP | _ | 14 house | case |
| 12 | of | of | ADP | _ | 14 house | case |
| 13 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 14 house | det |
| 14 | house | house | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 stolen | obl |
| 15 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 18 done | mark |
| 16 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 18 done | nsubj |
| 17 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 18 done | aux |
| 18 | done | do | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 10 stolen | advcl |
| 19 | on | on | ADP | _ | 22 day | case |
| 20 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 22 day | det |
| 21 | previous | previous | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 22 day | amod |
| 22 | day | day | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 done | obl |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 thought | punct |
| 24 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 26 thought | cc |
| 25 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 26 thought | nsubj |
| 26 | thought | think | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 told | conj |
| 27 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 31 gone | nsubj |
| 28 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 31 gone | aux |
| 29 | most | most | ADV | Degree=Sup | 30 likely | advmod |
| 30 | likely | likely | ADV | _ | 31 gone | advmod |
| 31 | gone | go | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 26 thought | ccomp |
| 32 | to | to | PART | _ | 33 join | mark |
| 33 | join | join | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 31 gone | xcomp |
| 34 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 36 boys | det |
| 35 | small | small | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 36 boys | amod |
| 36 | boys | boy | NOUN | Number=Plur | 38 company | nmod:poss |
| 37 | ’ | 's | PART | _ | 36 boys | case |
| 38 | company | company | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 join | obj |
| 39 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 42 heard | mark |
| 40 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 42 heard | nsubj |
| 41 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 42 heard | aux |
| 42 | heard | hear | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 33 join | advcl |
| 43 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 42 heard | obj |
| 44 | playing | play | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 42 heard | xcomp |
| 45 | in | in | ADP | _ | 47 town | case |
| 46 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 47 town | det |
| 47 | town | town | NOUN | Number=Sing | 44 playing | obl |
| 48 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 told | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | tell speech: assert | past | the old woman | Omegha's daughter | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent daughter=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 2 | steal | past · perfect · passive | Ogor | the house | vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: subject=Theme out house=Source | ||||
| 3 | do | past · perfect | Ogor | day | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 4 | think speech: other | past | Omegha | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | |||||
| 5 | go | past · perfect | Ogor | likely property | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | ||||
| 6 | join | to-infinitive | Ogor not said here | the small boys's company | vn mix-22.1-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent company=Patient | ||||
| 7 | hear | past · perfect | Omegha | boys = boy | tree rules | ||||
| 8 | play | gerund | boys = boy not said here | the town | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
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/pg70959/7/123/