Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inkum and Enfitop., sentence 162
In the morning the porcupine went down to the river, and dived in as he had done before, and swam to the water ju-ju’s house and told him that Chief Eka offered to give him two slaves if he would release his son.
Who acts: porcupine, Chief · What happens: go down, dive in, do, swim, tell, offer · To what, where: water, porcupine, two slaves, Chief, son · 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 (porcupine, 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 | In | in | ADP | _ | 3 morning | case |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 morning | det |
| 3 | morning | morning | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 went | obl |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 porcupine | det |
| 5 | porcupine | porcupine | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 went | nsubj |
| 6 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 7 | down | down | ADV | _ | 6 went | advmod |
| 8 | to | to | ADP | _ | 10 river | case |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 river | det |
| 10 | river | river | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 went | obl |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 13 dived | punct |
| 12 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 13 dived | cc |
| 13 | dived | dive | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 went | conj |
| 14 | in | in | ADP | _ | 13 dived | obl |
| 15 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 18 done | mark |
| 16 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 18 done | nsubj |
| 17 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 18 done | aux |
| 18 | done | do | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 13 dived | advcl |
| 19 | before | before | ADV | _ | 18 done | advmod |
| 20 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 22 swam | punct |
| 21 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 22 swam | cc |
| 22 | swam | swim | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 went | conj |
| 23 | to | to | ADP | _ | 25 water | case |
| 24 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 25 water | det |
| 25 | water | water | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 swam | obl |
| 26 | ju | ju | PROPN | Number=Sing | 30 house | nmod:poss |
| 27 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 28 ju | punct |
| 28 | ju | ju | PROPN | Number=Sing | 26 ju | flat |
| 29 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 26 ju | case |
| 30 | house | house | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 water | nmod |
| 31 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 32 told | cc |
| 32 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 22 swam | conj |
| 33 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 32 told | iobj |
| 34 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 37 offered | mark |
| 35 | Chief | Chief | PROPN | Number=Sing | 37 offered | nsubj |
| 36 | Eka | Eka | PROPN | Number=Sing | 35 Chief | flat |
| 37 | offered | offer | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 32 told | advcl |
| 38 | to | to | PART | _ | 39 give | mark |
| 39 | give | give | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 37 offered | xcomp |
| 40 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 39 give | iobj |
| 41 | two | two | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 42 slaves | nummod |
| 42 | slaves | slave | NOUN | Number=Plur | 39 give | obj |
| 43 | if | if | SCONJ | _ | 46 release | mark |
| 44 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 46 release | nsubj |
| 45 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 46 release | aux |
| 46 | release | release | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 39 give | advcl |
| 47 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 48 son | nmod:poss |
| 48 | son | son | NOUN | Number=Sing | 46 release | obj |
| 49 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 6 went | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | go down | past | the porcupine | morning | to the river; down property | vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute | |||
| 2 | dive in | past | the porcupine not said here | vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute | |||||
| 3 | do | past · perfect | porcupine | before property | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 4 | swim | past | the porcupine not said here | the water ju's house | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to water=Destination | ||||
| 5 | tell speech: assert | past | the porcupine not said here | porcupine | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient | ||||
| 6 | offer | past | Chief | tree rules | |||||
| 7 | give not said to happen | to-infinitive | Chief not said here | two slaves | Chief | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient slave=Theme | |||
| 8 | release a condition, not said to happen | would | Chief | Chief's son | vn free-10.6.3-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Causer son=Source |
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/pg70959/7/162/