Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inkum and Enfitop., sentence 78

When they sent a message to me, I told them that I would not move my people across the river, as I never thought they would fight against me, but now I am compelled to do so, as they have either killed or taken as prisoners nearly all the men, women and children of the town.

Who acts: people, I · What happens: send, tell, not move, not think, fight, compel · To what, where: message, me, people, river, I, men · 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 (people, I), 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	SCONJ	_	3 sent	mark
2	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 sent	nsubj
3	sent	send	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 told	advcl
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 message	det
5	message	message	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 sent	obj
6	to	to	ADP	_	7 me	case
7	me	I	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	3 sent	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 sent	punct
9	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	10 told	nsubj
10	told	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
11	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 told	iobj
12	that	that	SCONJ	_	16 move	mark
13	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	16 move	nsubj
14	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	16 move	aux
15	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	16 move	advmod
16	move	move	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 told	xcomp
17	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	18 people	nmod:poss
18	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 move	obj
19	across	across	ADP	_	21 river	case
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 river	det
21	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 move	obl
22	,	,	PUNCT	_	26 thought	punct
23	as	as	SCONJ	_	26 thought	mark
24	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	26 thought	nsubj
25	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	26 thought	advmod
26	thought	think	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	16 move	advcl
27	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	29 fight	nsubj
28	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	29 fight	aux
29	fight	fight	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	26 thought	ccomp
30	against	against	ADP	_	31 me	case
31	me	I	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	29 fight	obl
32	,	,	PUNCT	_	37 compelled	punct
33	but	but	CCONJ	_	37 compelled	cc
34	now	now	ADV	PronType=Dem	37 compelled	advmod
35	I	I	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	37 compelled	nsubj
36	am	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	37 compelled	aux:pass
37	compelled	compel	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 told	conj
38	to	to	PART	_	39 do	mark
39	do	do	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	37 compelled	xcomp
40	so	so	ADV	_	39 do	advmod
41	,	,	PUNCT	_	46 killed	punct
42	as	as	SCONJ	_	46 killed	mark
43	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	46 killed	nsubj:pass
44	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	46 killed	aux
45	either	either	ADV	PronType=Ind	46 killed	advmod
46	killed	kill	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	37 compelled	conj
47	or	or	CCONJ	_	48 taken	cc
48	taken	take	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	46 killed	conj
49	as	as	ADP	_	50 prisoners	case
50	prisoners	prisoner	NOUN	Number=Plur	48 taken	obl
51	nearly	nearly	ADV	_	52 all	advmod
52	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	54 men	det:predet
53	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	54 men	det
54	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	48 taken	obj
55	,	,	PUNCT	_	56 women	punct
56	women	woman	NOUN	Number=Plur	54 men	conj
57	and	and	CCONJ	_	58 children	cc
58	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	54 men	conj
59	of	of	ADP	_	61 town	case
60	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	61 town	det
61	town	town	NOUN	Number=Sing	58 children	nmod
62	.	.	PUNCT	_	10 told	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	send	past	people	a message	me				vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent message=Theme to i=Destination
2	tell speech: assert	past	I		people				vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic
3	not move not said to happen	would	I	my people		the river			vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent people=Theme across river=Trajectory
4	not think speech: other	past	I						vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
5	fight	would	people					against me	vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
6	compel	present · passive		I			now		vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: subject=Patient clause=Result
7	do	to-infinitive							vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
8	kill	present · perfect · passive		people				either property	vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
9	take	participle		all men and women and children of the town				as prisoners	vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent man=Theme as prisoner=Attribute

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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🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inkum and Enfitop., sentence 78

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inkum and Enfitop., sentence 78