Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inkum and Enfitop., sentence 32
When the parents of the children who had been stolen returned from their farms they missed their little ones, and so they went and complained to the head chief.
Who acts: children · What happens: steal, return, miss, go, complain · To what, where: parents, farms, little ones, head chief
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 (children), 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 | When | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 10 stolen | advmod |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 parents | det |
| 3 | parents | parent | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 stolen | nsubj:pass |
| 4 | of | of | ADP | _ | 6 children | case |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 children | det |
| 6 | children | child | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 parents | nmod |
| 7 | who | who | PRON | PronType=Rel | 10 stolen | nsubj:pass |
| 8 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 stolen | aux |
| 9 | been | be | AUX | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 10 stolen | aux:pass |
| 10 | stolen | steal | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 11 | returned | return | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 10 stolen | xcomp |
| 12 | from | from | ADP | _ | 14 farms | case |
| 13 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 14 farms | nmod:poss |
| 14 | farms | farm | NOUN | Number=Plur | 11 returned | obl |
| 15 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 missed | nsubj |
| 16 | missed | miss | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 14 farms | acl:relcl |
| 17 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 19 ones | nmod:poss |
| 18 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 19 ones | amod |
| 19 | ones | one | NOUN | Number=Plur | 16 missed | obj |
| 20 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 went | punct |
| 21 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 24 went | cc |
| 22 | so | so | ADV | _ | 24 went | advmod |
| 23 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 24 went | nsubj |
| 24 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 10 stolen | parataxis |
| 25 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 26 complained | cc |
| 26 | complained | complain | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 24 went | conj |
| 27 | to | to | ADP | _ | 30 chief | case |
| 28 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 30 chief | det |
| 29 | head | head | NOUN | Number=Sing | 30 chief | compound |
| 30 | chief | chief | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 complained | obl |
| 31 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 10 stolen | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | steal | past · perfect · passive | the parents of the children | who nsubj:pass | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | return | participle | children's farms | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme from farm=Initial_Location | |||||
| 3 | miss | past | children = child | children's little ones | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer one=Stimulus | ||||
| 4 | go | past | children = child | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 5 | complain speech: other | past | children = child not said here | the head chief | vn complain-37.8 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to chief=Recipient |
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/pg70959/7/32/