Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inkum and Enfitop., sentence 147
All that night, the mothers of the seven boys cried bitterly; and begged the chief not to kill their sons, but he told them that the sentence must be carried out, as otherwise the water ju-ju would be angry and kill many people.
Who acts: mothers, Chief, water ju ju · What happens: cry, beg, not kill, tell, carry out, be · To what, where: chief, sons, sentence, many people · 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 (mothers, Chief, water ju ju), 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 night | det:predet |
| 2 | that | that | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 3 night | det |
| 3 | night | night | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 cried | obl:unmarked |
| 4 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 night | punct |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 mothers | det |
| 6 | mothers | mother | NOUN | Number=Plur | 11 cried | nsubj |
| 7 | of | of | ADP | _ | 10 boys | case |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 boys | det |
| 9 | seven | seven | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 10 boys | nummod |
| 10 | boys | boy | NOUN | Number=Plur | 6 mothers | nmod |
| 11 | cried | cry | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 12 | bitterly | bitterly | ADV | _ | 11 cried | advmod |
| 13 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 15 begged | punct |
| 14 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 15 begged | cc |
| 15 | begged | beg | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 11 cried | conj |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 chief | det |
| 17 | chief | chief | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 begged | obj |
| 18 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 20 kill | advmod |
| 19 | to | to | PART | _ | 20 kill | mark |
| 20 | kill | kill | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 15 begged | advcl |
| 21 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 22 sons | nmod:poss |
| 22 | sons | son | NOUN | Number=Plur | 20 kill | obj |
| 23 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 told | punct |
| 24 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 26 told | cc |
| 25 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 26 told | nsubj |
| 26 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 11 cried | conj |
| 27 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 26 told | iobj |
| 28 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 33 carried | mark |
| 29 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 30 sentence | det |
| 30 | sentence | sentence | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 carried | nsubj:pass |
| 31 | must | must | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 33 carried | aux |
| 32 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 33 carried | aux:pass |
| 33 | carried | carry | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 26 told | ccomp |
| 34 | out | out | ADP | _ | 33 carried | compound:prt |
| 35 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 45 angry | punct |
| 36 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 45 angry | mark |
| 37 | otherwise | otherwise | ADV | _ | 45 angry | advmod |
| 38 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 42 ju | det |
| 39 | water | water | NOUN | Number=Sing | 42 ju | compound |
| 40 | ju | ju | NOUN | Number=Sing | 42 ju | compound |
| 41 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 40 ju | punct |
| 42 | ju | ju | NOUN | Number=Sing | 45 angry | nsubj |
| 43 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 45 angry | aux |
| 44 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 45 angry | cop |
| 45 | angry | angry | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 33 carried | conj |
| 46 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 47 kill | cc |
| 47 | kill | kill | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 45 angry | conj |
| 48 | many | many | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 49 people | amod |
| 49 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 47 kill | obj |
| 50 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 11 cried | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | cry speech: express | past | the mothers of the seven boys | night | bitterly property | vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||
| 2 | beg speech: request | past | the mothers of the seven boys not said here | the chief | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.Topic»: agent=Agent chief=Recipient | ||||
| 3 | not kill | to-infinitive | the mothers of the seven boys not said here | boys's sons | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Theme | ||||
| 4 | tell speech: assert | past | Chief | sons = son | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 5 | carry out | must · passive | the sentence | vn act-114 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality | |||||
| 6 | is | would | the water ju ju | angry, otherwise property | tree rules | ||||
| 7 | kill | infinitive | the water ju ju not said here | many people | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent people=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/pg70959/7/147/