Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inkum and Enfitop., sentence 144
The head chief then said that all the eight boys were guilty of trying to drown their companion, and that they should all be taken to the beach and killed as a warning to other boys not to kill one another.
Who acts: head chief, eight boys · What happens: say, be, try, drown, take, kill · To what, where: companion, boys, beach, one · 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 (head chief, eight 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 chief | det |
| 2 | head | head | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 chief | compound |
| 3 | chief | chief | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 said | nsubj |
| 4 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 5 said | advmod |
| 5 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 6 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 12 guilty | mark |
| 7 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 10 boys | det:predet |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 boys | det |
| 9 | eight | eight | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 10 boys | nummod |
| 10 | boys | boy | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 guilty | nsubj |
| 11 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 12 guilty | cop |
| 12 | guilty | guilty | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 5 said | ccomp |
| 13 | of | of | SCONJ | _ | 14 trying | mark |
| 14 | trying | try | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 12 guilty | advcl |
| 15 | to | to | PART | _ | 16 drown | mark |
| 16 | drown | drown | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 14 trying | xcomp |
| 17 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 18 companion | nmod:poss |
| 18 | companion | companion | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 drown | obj |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 taken | punct |
| 20 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 26 taken | cc |
| 21 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 26 taken | mark |
| 22 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 26 taken | nsubj |
| 23 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 26 taken | aux |
| 24 | all | all | ADV | _ | 26 taken | advmod |
| 25 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 26 taken | aux:pass |
| 26 | taken | take | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 5 said | conj |
| 27 | to | to | ADP | _ | 29 beach | case |
| 28 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 29 beach | det |
| 29 | beach | beach | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 taken | obl |
| 30 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 31 killed | cc |
| 31 | killed | kill | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 26 taken | conj |
| 32 | as | as | ADP | _ | 34 warning | case |
| 33 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 34 warning | det |
| 34 | warning | warning | NOUN | Number=Sing | 31 killed | obl |
| 35 | to | to | ADP | _ | 37 boys | case |
| 36 | other | other | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 37 boys | amod |
| 37 | boys | boy | NOUN | Number=Plur | 34 warning | nmod |
| 38 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 40 kill | advmod |
| 39 | to | to | PART | _ | 40 kill | mark |
| 40 | kill | kill | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 31 killed | advcl |
| 41 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 40 kill | obj |
| 42 | another | another | DET | PronType=Ind | 41 one | fixed |
| 43 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 said | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | say speech: assert | past | the head chief | then | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 2 | is | past | all eight boys | guilty property | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | try | gerund | all eight boys not said here | vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 4 | drown not said to happen | to-infinitive | all eight boys not said here | boys's companion | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent companion=Patient | ||||
| 5 | take | should · passive | boys = boy | the beach | all property | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme to beach=Destination | |||
| 6 | kill | participle | as a warning to other boys | vn spend_time-104 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent as warning=Attribute | |||||
| 7 | not kill | to-infinitive | one | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=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/pg70959/7/144/