Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed., sentence 23
The rabbit then went off and dug a hole under the chief’s bed so that he could hear all that passed in the room above him, and when it was dark he went into the hole to listen.
Who acts: rabbit, Agbor, that, hole · What happens: go off, dig, hear, pass, be, go · To what, where: hole, bed, room · 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 (rabbit, Agbor, that, hole), 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 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 rabbit | det |
| 2 | rabbit | rabbit | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 went | nsubj |
| 3 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 4 went | advmod |
| 4 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | off | off | ADP | _ | 4 went | compound:prt |
| 6 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 7 dug | cc |
| 7 | dug | dig | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 went | conj |
| 8 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 9 hole | det |
| 9 | hole | hole | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 dug | obj |
| 10 | under | under | ADP | _ | 14 bed | case |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 chief | det |
| 12 | chief | chief | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 bed | nmod:poss |
| 13 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 12 chief | case |
| 14 | bed | bed | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 dug | obl |
| 15 | so | so | SCONJ | ExtPos=SCONJ | 19 hear | mark |
| 16 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 15 so | fixed |
| 17 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 19 hear | nsubj |
| 18 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 19 hear | aux |
| 19 | hear | hear | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 7 dug | advcl |
| 20 | all | all | DET | PronType=Tot | 22 passed | det:predet |
| 21 | that | that | PRON | PronType=Rel | 22 passed | nsubj |
| 22 | passed | pass | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 19 hear | ccomp |
| 23 | in | in | ADP | _ | 25 room | case |
| 24 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 25 room | det |
| 25 | room | room | NOUN | Number=Sing | 22 passed | obl |
| 26 | above | above | ADP | _ | 27 him | case |
| 27 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 25 room | nmod |
| 28 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 35 went | punct |
| 29 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 35 went | cc |
| 30 | when | when | SCONJ | _ | 33 dark | mark |
| 31 | it | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 33 dark | nsubj |
| 32 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 33 dark | cop |
| 33 | dark | dark | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 35 went | advcl |
| 34 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 35 went | nsubj |
| 35 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 went | conj |
| 36 | into | into | ADP | _ | 38 hole | case |
| 37 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 38 hole | det |
| 38 | hole | hole | NOUN | Number=Sing | 35 went | obl |
| 39 | to | to | PART | _ | 40 listen | mark |
| 40 | listen | listen | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 35 went | advcl |
| 41 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 went | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | go off | past | the rabbit | then | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 2 | dig | past | the rabbit not said here | a hole | the chief's bed | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent hole=Theme under bed=Location | |||
| 3 | hear | could | Agbor | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | |||||
| 4 | pass | past | that | the room above Agbor | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in room=Location | ||||
| 5 | is | past | hole | dark property | tree rules | ||||
| 6 | go | past | Agbor | the hole | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme into hole=Initial_Location | ||||
| 7 | listen | to-infinitive | Agbor not said here | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
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/pg70959/8/23/