Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed., sentence 27

The chief then placed the boys in a row and told them to clear the bush to the place where he would be standing, and told them that the boy who finished last would be killed as a warning to the others what would happen to them if they did not work hard.

Who acts: chief, Agbor, boy, rabbit · What happens: place, tell, clear, stand, finish, kill · To what, where: boys, row, rabbit, bush, place, boy · 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 (chief, Agbor, boy, rabbit), 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 chief	det
2	chief	chief	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 placed	nsubj
3	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	4 placed	advmod
4	placed	place	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 boys	det
6	boys	boy	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 placed	obj
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 row	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 row	det
9	row	row	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 placed	obl
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 told	cc
11	told	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 placed	conj
12	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 told	iobj
13	to	to	PART	_	14 clear	mark
14	clear	clear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 told	xcomp
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 bush	det
16	bush	bush	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 clear	obj
17	to	to	ADP	_	19 place	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 place	det
19	place	place	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 clear	obl
20	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	24 standing	advmod
21	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	24 standing	nsubj
22	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	24 standing	aux
23	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	24 standing	aux
24	standing	stand	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	19 place	acl:relcl
25	,	,	PUNCT	_	27 told	punct
26	and	and	CCONJ	_	27 told	cc
27	told	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 placed	conj
28	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	27 told	iobj
29	that	that	SCONJ	_	37 killed	mark
30	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	31 boy	det
31	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	37 killed	nsubj:pass
32	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	33 finished	nsubj
33	finished	finish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	31 boy	acl:relcl
34	last	last	ADV	_	33 finished	advmod
35	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	37 killed	aux
36	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	37 killed	aux:pass
37	killed	kill	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	46 happen	advcl
38	as	as	ADP	_	40 warning	case
39	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	40 warning	det
40	warning	warning	NOUN	Number=Sing	37 killed	obl
41	to	to	ADP	_	43 others	case
42	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	43 others	det
43	others	other	NOUN	Number=Plur	40 warning	nmod
44	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	46 happen	nsubj
45	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	46 happen	aux
46	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	27 told	ccomp
47	to	to	ADP	_	48 them	case
48	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	46 happen	obl
49	if	if	SCONJ	_	53 work	mark
50	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	53 work	nsubj
51	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	53 work	aux
52	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	53 work	advmod
53	work	work	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	46 happen	advcl
54	hard	hard	ADV	Degree=Pos	53 work	advmod
55	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 placed	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	place	past	the chief	the boys		a row	then		vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent boy=Theme in row=Destination
2	tell speech: assert	past	the chief not said here		rabbit				vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic
3	clear not said to happen	to-infinitive	the chief not said here	the bush		the place			vn clear-10.3-1 «NP V NP PP.source PP.destination»: agent=Agent bush=Theme to place=Destination
4	stand	would · progressive	Agbor						vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent
5	tell speech: assert	past	the chief not said here		rabbit				vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic
6	finish	past	the boy					last property	vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality
7	kill	would · passive		the boy				as a warning to the others	vn spend_time-104 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Duration as warning=Attribute
8	happen	would			rabbit			what nsubj	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
9	not work a condition, not said to happen	past · do-support	rabbit					hard property	vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: 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/pg70959/8/27/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed., sentence 27

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed., sentence 27