Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed., sentence 22

Agbor then went to the rabbit[2] who was a great friend of hers, and having told him her story, asked him to dig a hole underneath the bed of her husband so that he could hide there and hear what the chief said at night to his other wives in case he should be planning evil against her son, and Agbor also asked him to tell her every morning what he had heard.

Who acts: Agbor, rabbit, chief · What happens: go, be, have, tell, ask, dig · To what, where: great friend, story, Agbor, hole, bed, other wives · 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 (Agbor, rabbit, chief), 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	Agbor	Agbor	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 went	nsubj
2	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	3 went	advmod
3	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	6 rabbit	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 rabbit	det
6	rabbit	rabbit	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 went	obl
7	[	[	PUNCT	_	8 2	punct
8	2	2	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	14 friend	discourse
9	]	]	PUNCT	_	8 2	punct
10	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	14 friend	nsubj
11	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 friend	cop
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 friend	det
13	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 friend	amod
14	friend	friend	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 rabbit	conj
15	of	of	ADP	_	16 hers	case
16	hers	her	PRON	Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 friend	nmod
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	20 told	punct
18	and	and	CCONJ	_	20 told	cc
19	having	have	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	20 told	ccomp
20	told	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 went	parataxis
21	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	20 told	iobj
22	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	23 story	nmod:poss
23	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 told	obj
24	,	,	PUNCT	_	25 asked	punct
25	asked	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	20 told	conj
26	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	25 asked	iobj
27	to	to	PART	_	28 dig	mark
28	dig	dig	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	25 asked	xcomp
29	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	30 hole	det
30	hole	hole	NOUN	Number=Sing	28 dig	obj
31	underneath	underneath	ADP	_	33 bed	case
32	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	33 bed	det
33	bed	bed	NOUN	Number=Sing	28 dig	obl
34	of	of	ADP	_	36 husband	case
35	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	36 husband	nmod:poss
36	husband	husband	NOUN	Number=Sing	33 bed	nmod
37	so	so	SCONJ	ExtPos=SCONJ	41 hide	mark
38	that	that	SCONJ	_	37 so	fixed
39	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	41 hide	nsubj
40	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	41 hide	aux
41	hide	hide	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	28 dig	advcl
42	there	there	ADV	PronType=Dem	41 hide	advmod
43	and	and	CCONJ	_	44 hear	cc
44	hear	hear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	41 hide	conj
45	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	48 said	obj
46	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	47 chief	det
47	chief	chief	NOUN	Number=Sing	48 said	nsubj
48	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	44 hear	ccomp
49	at	at	ADP	_	50 night	case
50	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	48 said	obl
51	to	to	ADP	_	54 wives	case
52	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	54 wives	nmod:poss
53	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	54 wives	amod
54	wives	wife	NOUN	Number=Plur	48 said	obl
55	in	in	ADP	ExtPos=ADV	60 planning	advmod
56	case	case	NOUN	Number=Sing	55 in	fixed
57	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	60 planning	nsubj
58	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	60 planning	aux
59	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	60 planning	aux
60	planning	plan	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	54 wives	acl
61	evil	evil	ADJ	Degree=Pos	60 planning	xcomp
62	against	against	ADP	_	64 son	case
63	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	64 son	nmod:poss
64	son	son	NOUN	Number=Sing	60 planning	obl
65	,	,	PUNCT	_	69 asked	punct
66	and	and	CCONJ	_	69 asked	cc
67	Agbor	Agbor	PROPN	Number=Sing	69 asked	nsubj
68	also	also	ADV	_	69 asked	advmod
69	asked	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 went	conj
70	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	69 asked	iobj
71	to	to	PART	_	72 tell	mark
72	tell	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	69 asked	xcomp
73	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	72 tell	iobj
74	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	75 morning	det
75	morning	morning	NOUN	Number=Sing	72 tell	obl:unmarked
76	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	79 heard	obj
77	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	79 heard	nsubj
78	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	79 heard	aux
79	heard	hear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	72 tell	ccomp
80	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 went	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go	past	Agbor				then	to the rabbit and a great friend	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to rabbit=Initial_Location
2	is a	past	the rabbit and a great friend	a great friend				of Queen; 2 discourse	tree rules
3	have	gerund							vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
4	tell speech: assert	past		Queen's story	Agbor				tree rules
5	ask speech: ask	past			Agbor				vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic
6	dig not said to happen	to-infinitive		a hole		the bed of Queen's husband			vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent hole=Theme underneath bed=Location
7	hide	could	Agbor			there			vn concealment-16-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
8	hear	infinitive	Agbor not said here						vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
9	say speech: assert	past	the chief		Agbor's other wives		night	what obj	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent what=Topic to wife=Recipient
10	plan	should · progressive	Agbor	Agbor's other wives not said here				against Queen's son; evil property	vn intend-61.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wife=Topic
11	ask speech: ask	past	Agbor		son				vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic
12	tell speech: assert not said to happen	to-infinitive	Agbor not said here		Queen		morning		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic
13	hear	past · perfect	Agbor					what obj	vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus

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, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed., sentence 22

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed., sentence 22