Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed., sentence 19
Then the Queen of the White Ants asked her what she could do to help her.
Who acts: Queen · What happens: ask, do, help · To what, where: chief
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 (Queen), 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 | Then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 8 asked | advmod |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 Queen | det |
| 3 | Queen | Queen | PROPN | Number=Sing | 8 asked | nsubj |
| 4 | of | of | ADP | _ | 7 Ants | case |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 Ants | det |
| 6 | White | white | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 Ants | amod |
| 7 | Ants | Ant | PROPN | Number=Plur | 3 Queen | nmod |
| 8 | asked | ask | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 9 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 8 asked | iobj |
| 10 | what | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 13 do | obj |
| 11 | she | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 13 do | nsubj |
| 12 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 13 do | aux |
| 13 | do | do | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 8 asked | xcomp |
| 14 | to | to | PART | _ | 15 help | mark |
| 15 | help | help | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 13 do | advcl |
| 16 | her | she | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 15 help | obj |
| 17 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 asked | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ask speech: ask | past | the Queen of the White Ants | chief | then | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic | |||
| 2 | do not said to happen | could | Queen | what obj | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality | ||||
| 3 | help | to-infinitive | Queen not said here | chief | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=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/pg70959/8/19/