Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed., sentence 40
She also gave him a sharp spear and told him that he was to spear the bundle before he went near it as there was a crocodile hidden beneath the leaves.
Who acts: chief, son, crocodile · What happens: give, tell, be, go, hide · To what, where: sharp spear, son, spear, crocodile, leaves · 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, son, 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 | She | she | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 gave | nsubj |
| 2 | also | also | ADV | _ | 3 gave | advmod |
| 3 | gave | give | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 gave | iobj |
| 5 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 7 spear | det |
| 6 | sharp | sharp | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 spear | amod |
| 7 | spear | spear | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 gave | obj |
| 8 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 9 told | cc |
| 9 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 gave | conj |
| 10 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 9 told | iobj |
| 11 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 15 spear | mark |
| 12 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 15 spear | nsubj |
| 13 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 15 spear | cop |
| 14 | to | to | PART | _ | 15 spear | mark |
| 15 | spear | spear | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 told | ccomp |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 bundle | det |
| 17 | bundle | bundle | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 spear | appos |
| 18 | before | before | SCONJ | _ | 20 went | mark |
| 19 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 20 went | nsubj |
| 20 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 told | ccomp |
| 21 | near | near | ADV | _ | 20 went | advmod |
| 22 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 20 went | obl |
| 23 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 25 was | mark |
| 24 | there | there | PRON | PronType=Dem | 25 was | expl |
| 25 | was | be | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 20 went | advcl |
| 26 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 27 crocodile | det |
| 27 | crocodile | crocodile | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 was | nsubj |
| 28 | hidden | hide | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 27 crocodile | acl |
| 29 | beneath | beneath | ADP | _ | 31 leaves | case |
| 30 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 31 leaves | det |
| 31 | leaves | leaf | NOUN | Number=Plur | 28 hidden | obl |
| 32 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 gave | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | give | past | chief | a sharp spear | son | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient spear=Theme | |||
| 2 | tell speech: assert | past | chief not said here | son | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 3 | is a not said to happen | past | son | spear | the bundle appos | tree rules | |||
| 4 | go | past | son | spear | near property | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||
| 5 | be | past | a crocodile | there | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||
| 6 | hide | participle | a crocodile not said here | the leaves | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent beneath leaf=Location |
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/pg70959/8/40/