Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed., sentence 14
He then told the boys that he would take them into the bush the next day, to the place where he intended to make a farm, and that they should clear some ground for him.
Who acts: Osewo, degrees · What happens: tell, take, intend, make, clear · To what, where: boys, that, bush, farm, ground · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Osewo, degrees), 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 | He | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 told | nsubj |
| 2 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 3 told | advmod |
| 3 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 boys | det |
| 5 | boys | boy | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 told | iobj |
| 6 | that | that | PRON | PronType=Rel | 9 take | obj |
| 7 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 9 take | nsubj |
| 8 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 9 take | aux |
| 9 | take | take | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 told | ccomp |
| 10 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 9 take | obj |
| 11 | into | into | ADP | _ | 13 bush | case |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 13 bush | det |
| 13 | bush | bush | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 take | obl |
| 14 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 16 day | det |
| 15 | next | next | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 16 day | amod |
| 16 | day | day | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 take | obl:unmarked |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 place | punct |
| 18 | to | to | ADP | _ | 20 place | case |
| 19 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 20 place | det |
| 20 | place | place | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 take | obj |
| 21 | where | where | ADV | PronType=Rel | 23 intended | advmod |
| 22 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 23 intended | nsubj |
| 23 | intended | intend | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 20 place | acl:relcl |
| 24 | to | to | PART | _ | 25 make | mark |
| 25 | make | make | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 23 intended | xcomp |
| 26 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 27 farm | det |
| 27 | farm | farm | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 make | obj |
| 28 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 33 clear | punct |
| 29 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 33 clear | cc |
| 30 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 33 clear | mark |
| 31 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 33 clear | nsubj |
| 32 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 33 clear | aux |
| 33 | clear | clear | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 9 take | parataxis |
| 34 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 35 ground | det |
| 35 | ground | ground | NOUN | Number=Sing | 33 clear | obj |
| 36 | for | for | ADP | _ | 37 him | case |
| 37 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 33 clear | obl |
| 38 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 told | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | tell speech: assert | past | Osewo | the boys | then | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent boy=Recipient clause=Topic | |||
| 2 | take | would | Osewo | that | the bush | day | degrees = degree obj; the place obj | tree rules | |
| 3 | intend | past | Osewo | vn intend-61.2-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 4 | make not said to happen | to-infinitive | Osewo not said here | a farm | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset farm=Product | ||||
| 5 | clear | should | degrees = degree | some ground | for Osewo | vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent ground=Product for he=Beneficiary |
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/pg70959/8/14/