Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inkum and Enfitop., sentence 27
After thinking some time, he said he thought the best way was to steal the children from the town.
Who acts: Chief, best way · What happens: think, say, be · To what, where: town · 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 (Chief, best way), 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 | After | after | SCONJ | _ | 2 thinking | mark |
| 2 | thinking | think | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 7 said | advcl |
| 3 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 4 time | det |
| 4 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 thinking | obj |
| 5 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 2 thinking | punct |
| 6 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 7 said | nsubj |
| 7 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 8 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 9 thought | nsubj |
| 9 | thought | think | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 7 said | ccomp |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 way | det |
| 11 | best | good | ADJ | Degree=Sup | 12 way | amod |
| 12 | way | way | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 steal | nsubj |
| 13 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 15 steal | cop |
| 14 | to | to | PART | _ | 15 steal | mark |
| 15 | steal | steal | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 9 thought | ccomp |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 children | det |
| 17 | children | child | NOUN | Number=Plur | 15 steal | obj |
| 18 | from | from | ADP | _ | 20 town | case |
| 19 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 20 town | det |
| 20 | town | town | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 steal | obl |
| 21 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 7 said | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | think speech: other | gerund | Chief not said here | time | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 2 | say speech: assert | past | Chief | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 3 | think speech: other | past | Chief | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme | |||||
| 4 | is | past | the best way | the town | the children obj; steal property | tree rules |
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/pg70959/7/27/