Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inkum and Enfitop., sentence 130
The porcupine then told the water ju-ju that he had promised to help Omegha, and asked if the boy was there.
Who acts: porcupine, boy · What happens: tell, promise, help, ask, be · To what, where: water ju ju, Omegha · 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 (porcupine, boy), 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 porcupine | det |
| 2 | porcupine | porcupine | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 told | nsubj |
| 3 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 4 told | advmod |
| 4 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 9 ju | det |
| 6 | water | water | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 ju | compound |
| 7 | ju | ju | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 ju | compound |
| 8 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 7 ju | punct |
| 9 | ju | ju | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 told | obj |
| 10 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 13 promised | mark |
| 11 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 13 promised | nsubj |
| 12 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 13 promised | aux |
| 13 | promised | promise | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 4 told | ccomp |
| 14 | to | to | PART | _ | 15 help | mark |
| 15 | help | help | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 13 promised | xcomp |
| 16 | Omegha | Omegha | PROPN | Number=Sing | 15 help | obj |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 asked | punct |
| 18 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 19 asked | cc |
| 19 | asked | ask | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 told | conj |
| 20 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 24 there | mark |
| 21 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 22 boy | det |
| 22 | boy | boy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 there | nsubj |
| 23 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 24 there | cop |
| 24 | there | there | ADV | PronType=Dem | 19 asked | advcl |
| 25 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 told | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | tell speech: assert | past | the porcupine | the water ju ju | then | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent ju=Recipient clause=Topic | |||
| 2 | promise speech: promise | past · perfect | porcupine | vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 3 | help not said to happen | to-infinitive | porcupine not said here | Omegha | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent omegha=Beneficiary | ||||
| 4 | ask speech: ask | past | the porcupine not said here | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 5 | is a condition, not said to happen | past | the boy | there property | tree rules |
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/pg70959/7/130/