Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inkum and Enfitop., sentence 150

The head chief then called the porcupine to him, and told him to go to the water ju-ju and tell him that the seven boys had been killed, but that Chief Eka had refused to allow his son to be killed, and had defied the water ju-ju to do his worst.

Who acts: head chief, Chief · What happens: call, tell, go, kill, refuse, not allow · To what, where: porcupine, Chief, water ju ju, seven boys, son, worst · 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, 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	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 called	nsubj
4	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	5 called	advmod
5	called	call	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 porcupine	det
7	porcupine	porcupine	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 called	obj
8	to	to	ADP	_	9 him	case
9	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 called	obl
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 told	punct
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 told	cc
12	told	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 called	parataxis
13	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 told	iobj
14	to	to	PART	_	15 go	mark
15	go	go	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 told	xcomp
16	to	to	ADP	_	21 ju	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 ju	det
18	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 ju	compound
19	ju	ju	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 ju	compound
20	-	-	PUNCT	_	19 ju	punct
21	ju	ju	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 go	obl
22	and	and	CCONJ	_	23 tell	cc
23	tell	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	15 go	conj
24	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	23 tell	iobj
25	that	that	SCONJ	_	31 killed	mark
26	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	28 boys	det
27	seven	seven	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	28 boys	nummod
28	boys	boy	NOUN	Number=Plur	31 killed	nsubj:pass
29	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	31 killed	aux
30	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	31 killed	aux:pass
31	killed	kill	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	23 tell	advcl
32	,	,	PUNCT	_	38 refused	punct
33	but	but	CCONJ	_	38 refused	cc
34	that	that	SCONJ	_	38 refused	mark
35	Chief	Chief	PROPN	Number=Sing	38 refused	nsubj
36	Eka	Eka	PROPN	Number=Sing	35 Chief	flat
37	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	38 refused	aux
38	refused	refuse	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	12 told	conj
39	to	to	PART	_	40 allow	mark
40	allow	allow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	38 refused	xcomp
41	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	42 son	nmod:poss
42	son	son	NOUN	Number=Sing	40 allow	iobj
43	to	to	PART	_	45 killed	mark
44	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	45 killed	aux:pass
45	killed	kill	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	40 allow	advcl
46	,	,	PUNCT	_	49 defied	punct
47	and	and	CCONJ	_	49 defied	cc
48	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	49 defied	aux
49	defied	defy	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	5 called	conj
50	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	54 ju	det
51	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	54 ju	compound
52	ju	ju	NOUN	Number=Sing	54 ju	compound
53	-	-	PUNCT	_	52 ju	punct
54	ju	ju	NOUN	Number=Sing	49 defied	obj
55	to	to	PART	_	56 do	mark
56	do	do	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	49 defied	advcl
57	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	58 worst	nmod:poss
58	worst	bad	ADJ	Degree=Sup	56 do	obj
59	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 called	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	roles by
1	call speech: assert	past	the head chief	the porcupine	porcupine		then	vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent porcupine=Topic to he=Recipient
2	tell speech: assert	past			Chief			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic
3	go not said to happen	to-infinitive				the water ju ju		vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to ju=Initial_Location
4	tell speech: assert	infinitive			Chief			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient
5	kill	past · perfect · passive		the seven boys				vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
6	refuse	past · perfect	Chief					vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
7	not allow	to-infinitive	Chief not said here		Chief's son			vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Beneficiary
8	kill	to-infinitive · passive	Chief not said here					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»
9	defy	past · perfect	the head chief not said here	the water ju ju				tree rules
10	do	to-infinitive	the head chief not said here	Chief's worst				vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bad=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/pg70959/7/150/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inkum and Enfitop., sentence 150

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inkum and Enfitop., sentence 150