Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inkum and Enfitop., sentence 146
All the people agreed that it was a just sentence, but one chief, called Eka, refused to allow his son, who was one of the eight boys, to be killed, and said he would see what the water ju-ju could do.
Who acts: people, River, one chief, son, Chief, water ju ju · What happens: agree, be, call, refuse, not allow, kill · To what, where: sentence, one chief, son, 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 (people, River, one chief, son), 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 | All | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 3 people | det:predet |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 people | det |
| 3 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 agreed | nsubj |
| 4 | agreed | agree | VERB | Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 10 sentence | mark |
| 6 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 10 sentence | nsubj |
| 7 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 sentence | cop |
| 8 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 10 sentence | det |
| 9 | just | just | ADV | _ | 10 sentence | advmod |
| 10 | sentence | sentence | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 agreed | ccomp |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 19 refused | punct |
| 12 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 19 refused | cc |
| 13 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 14 chief | nummod |
| 14 | chief | chief | NOUN | Number=Sing | 19 refused | nsubj |
| 15 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 called | punct |
| 16 | called | call | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 14 chief | acl |
| 17 | Eka | Eka | PROPN | Number=Sing | 16 called | xcomp |
| 18 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 chief | punct |
| 19 | refused | refuse | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 agreed | conj |
| 20 | to | to | PART | _ | 21 allow | mark |
| 21 | allow | allow | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 19 refused | xcomp |
| 22 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 23 son | nmod:poss |
| 23 | son | son | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 allow | iobj |
| 24 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 27 one | punct |
| 25 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 27 one | nsubj |
| 26 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 27 one | cop |
| 27 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 23 son | appos |
| 28 | of | of | ADP | _ | 31 boys | case |
| 29 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 31 boys | det |
| 30 | eight | eight | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 31 boys | nummod |
| 31 | boys | boy | NOUN | Number=Plur | 27 one | nmod |
| 32 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 35 killed | punct |
| 33 | to | to | PART | _ | 35 killed | mark |
| 34 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 35 killed | aux:pass |
| 35 | killed | kill | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 21 allow | conj |
| 36 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 38 said | punct |
| 37 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 38 said | cc |
| 38 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 agreed | parataxis |
| 39 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 41 see | nsubj |
| 40 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 41 see | aux |
| 41 | see | see | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 38 said | ccomp |
| 42 | what | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 49 do | obj |
| 43 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 47 ju | det |
| 44 | water | water | NOUN | Number=Sing | 47 ju | compound |
| 45 | ju | ju | NOUN | Number=Sing | 47 ju | compound |
| 46 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 45 ju | punct |
| 47 | ju | ju | NOUN | Number=Sing | 49 do | nsubj |
| 48 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 49 do | aux |
| 49 | do | do | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 41 see | ccomp |
| 50 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 agreed | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | agree speech: agree | past | all people | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 2 | is a | past | River | a sentence | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | call | participle | one chief not said here | Eka xcomp | vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 4 | refuse | past | one chief | vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | |||||
| 5 | not allow | to-infinitive | one chief not said here | Chief's son | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Beneficiary | ||||
| 6 | is a | past | Chief's son | one | of the eight boys | tree rules | |||
| 7 | kill | to-infinitive · passive | one chief not said here | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle» | |||||
| 8 | say speech: assert | past | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | ||||||
| 9 | see | would | Chief | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | |||||
| 10 | do | could | the water ju ju | what obj | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
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/pg70959/7/146/