Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inkum and Enfitop., sentence 14

When the Enfitop boys arrived, they all sat together a little distance off, and one of their head boys was told to sit on the rock with his back to the pit, which he could not see, as it was dark.

Who acts: Enfitop boys, boys, one, Chief, rock · What happens: arrive, sit off, tell, sit, not see, be · To what, where: little distance, one, rock, pit · 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 (Enfitop boys, boys, one, Chief), 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	_	5 arrived	mark
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 boys	det
3	Enfitop	Enfitop	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 boys	compound
4	boys	boy	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 arrived	nsubj
5	arrived	arrive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 sat	advcl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 arrived	punct
7	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 sat	nsubj
8	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	7 they	det
9	sat	sit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	together	together	ADV	_	9 sat	advmod
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 distance	det
12	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 distance	amod
13	distance	distance	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 sat	obj
14	off	off	ADP	_	9 sat	compound:prt
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	23 told	punct
16	and	and	CCONJ	_	23 told	cc
17	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	23 told	nsubj:pass
18	of	of	ADP	_	21 boys	case
19	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	21 boys	nmod:poss
20	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 boys	compound
21	boys	boy	NOUN	Number=Plur	17 one	nmod
22	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	23 told	aux:pass
23	told	tell	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 sat	conj
24	to	to	PART	_	25 sit	mark
25	sit	sit	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	23 told	xcomp
26	on	on	ADP	_	28 rock	case
27	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	28 rock	det
28	rock	rock	NOUN	Number=Sing	25 sit	obl
29	with	with	ADP	_	31 back	case
30	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	31 back	nmod:poss
31	back	back	NOUN	Number=Sing	25 sit	obl
32	to	to	ADP	_	34 pit	case
33	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	34 pit	det
34	pit	pit	NOUN	Number=Sing	25 sit	obl
35	,	,	PUNCT	_	40 see	punct
36	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	40 see	obj
37	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	40 see	nsubj
38	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	40 see	aux
39	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	40 see	advmod
40	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	34 pit	acl:relcl
41	,	,	PUNCT	_	45 dark	punct
42	as	as	SCONJ	_	45 dark	mark
43	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	45 dark	nsubj
44	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	45 dark	cop
45	dark	dark	ADJ	Degree=Pos	25 sit	conj
46	.	.	PUNCT	_	9 sat	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	arrive	past	the Enfitop boys				vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	sit off	past	boys = boy	a little distance		together property	vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location distance=Theme
3	tell speech: assert	past · passive		one of boys's head boys			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic
4	sit not said to happen	to-infinitive	one of boys's head boys not said here		the rock	with Chief's back; to the pit	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on rock=Location
5	not see	could	Chief	the pit			vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer which=Stimulus
6	is	past	rock			dark 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/pg70959/7/14/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inkum and Enfitop., sentence 14

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inkum and Enfitop., sentence 14