Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inkum and Enfitop., sentence 36
Chief Indoma could not understand the reason of this message being sent, so he replied that he certainly would not tell his people to move, and that he would see what they could do.
Who acts: Chief, people · What happens: not understand, send, reply, not tell, move, see · To what, where: reason, message, 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 (Chief, people), 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 | Chief | Chief | PROPN | Number=Sing | 5 understand | nsubj |
| 2 | Indoma | Indoma | PROPN | Number=Sing | 1 Chief | flat |
| 3 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 5 understand | aux |
| 4 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 5 understand | advmod |
| 5 | understand | understand | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 reason | det |
| 7 | reason | reason | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 understand | obj |
| 8 | of | of | ADP | _ | 10 message | case |
| 9 | this | this | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 10 message | det |
| 10 | message | message | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 reason | nmod |
| 11 | being | be | AUX | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 12 sent | aux:pass |
| 12 | sent | send | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 10 message | acl |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 replied | punct |
| 14 | so | so | ADV | _ | 16 replied | advmod |
| 15 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 replied | nsubj |
| 16 | replied | reply | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 understand | parataxis |
| 17 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 22 tell | mark |
| 18 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 22 tell | nsubj |
| 19 | certainly | certainly | ADV | _ | 22 tell | advmod |
| 20 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 22 tell | aux |
| 21 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 22 tell | advmod |
| 22 | tell | tell | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 16 replied | ccomp |
| 23 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 24 people | nmod:poss |
| 24 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 22 tell | iobj |
| 25 | to | to | PART | _ | 26 move | mark |
| 26 | move | move | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 22 tell | ccomp |
| 27 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 32 see | punct |
| 28 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 32 see | cc |
| 29 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 32 see | mark |
| 30 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 32 see | nsubj |
| 31 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 32 see | aux |
| 32 | see | see | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 5 understand | conj |
| 33 | what | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 36 do | obj |
| 34 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 36 do | nsubj |
| 35 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 36 do | aux |
| 36 | do | do | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 32 see | ccomp |
| 37 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 understand | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not understand | could | Chief | the reason of this message | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer reason=Stimulus | ||||
| 2 | send | gerund · passive | this message not said here | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP» | |||||
| 3 | reply speech: assert | past | Chief | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 4 | not tell speech: assert | would | Chief | Chief's people | certainly property | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent people=Recipient clause=Topic | |||
| 5 | move not said to happen | to-infinitive | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme | ||||||
| 6 | see | would | Chief | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | |||||
| 7 | do | could | people | what obj | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=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.
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