Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed., sentence 38

Then the chief called his nine sons together and told them to go down to the beach one after the other and bring up a bundle of the leaves, and they were then to start making mats to repair the houses, but he told Agberamfe to go last because he was the youngest.

Who acts: chief, slaves, mats, crocodile · What happens: call, tell, go down, bring up, start, make · To what, where: nine sons, slaves, bundle, mats, houses, Agberamfe · 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, slaves, mats, crocodile), 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	4 called	advmod
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 chief	det
3	chief	chief	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 called	nsubj
4	called	call	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 sons	nmod:poss
6	nine	nine	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 sons	nummod
7	sons	son	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 called	obj
8	together	together	ADV	_	4 called	advmod
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 told	cc
10	told	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 called	conj
11	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 told	iobj
12	to	to	PART	_	13 go	mark
13	go	go	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 told	xcomp
14	down	down	ADV	_	13 go	advmod
15	to	to	ADP	_	17 beach	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 beach	det
17	beach	beach	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 go	obl
18	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	17 beach	flat
19	after	after	ADP	_	21 other	case
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 other	det
21	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 go	obl
22	and	and	CCONJ	_	23 bring	cc
23	bring	bring	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 go	conj
24	up	up	ADP	_	23 bring	compound:prt
25	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	26 bundle	det
26	bundle	bundle	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 bring	obj
27	of	of	ADP	_	29 leaves	case
28	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	29 leaves	det
29	leaves	leaf	NOUN	Number=Plur	26 bundle	nmod
30	,	,	PUNCT	_	36 start	punct
31	and	and	CCONJ	_	36 start	cc
32	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	36 start	nsubj
33	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	36 start	aux
34	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	36 start	advmod
35	to	to	PART	_	36 start	mark
36	start	start	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 called	conj
37	making	make	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	36 start	xcomp
38	mats	mat	NOUN	Number=Plur	37 making	obj
39	to	to	PART	_	40 repair	mark
40	repair	repair	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	37 making	xcomp
41	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	42 houses	det
42	houses	house	NOUN	Number=Plur	40 repair	obj
43	,	,	PUNCT	_	46 told	punct
44	but	but	CCONJ	_	46 told	cc
45	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	46 told	nsubj
46	told	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 called	conj
47	Agberamfe	Agberamfe	PROPN	Number=Sing	46 told	iobj
48	to	to	PART	_	49 go	mark
49	go	go	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	46 told	xcomp
50	last	last	ADV	_	49 go	advmod
51	because	because	SCONJ	_	55 youngest	mark
52	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	55 youngest	nsubj
53	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	55 youngest	cop
54	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	55 youngest	det
55	youngest	young	ADJ	Degree=Sup	49 go	advcl
56	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 called	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	when	other	roles by
1	call	past	the chief		crocodile's nine sons	then	together property	vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent son=Recipient
2	tell speech: assert	past	the chief not said here		slaves = slave			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic
3	go down not said to happen	to-infinitive	the chief not said here			after the other	to the beach; down property	vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute
4	bring up	present	the chief not said here	a bundle of the leaves				vn remedy-45.7 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent bundle=Patient
5	start	past	slaves = slave			then		vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
6	make	gerund	slaves = slave not said here	mats				tree rules
7	repair	to-infinitive	mats not said here	the houses				vn remedy-45.7 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent house=Patient
8	tell speech: assert	past	crocodile		Agberamfe			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent agberamfe=Recipient clause=Topic
9	go not said to happen	to-infinitive	crocodile not said here				last property	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
10	is	past	crocodile				young property	tree rules

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/pg70959/8/38/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed., sentence 38

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed., sentence 38