Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed., sentence 48
That the next day he would send Agbor’s son to blow the bellows, and that when the iron was red hot the blacksmith would plunge it into the boy’s inside, and that he would die in great pain.
Who acts: That, head, iron · What happens: day, send, blow, be, plunge, die · To what, where: son, bellows, blacksmith
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 (That, head, iron), 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 | That | that | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 4 day | nsubj |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 day | det |
| 3 | next | next | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 day | amod |
| 4 | day | day | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 send | obl:unmarked |
| 5 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 7 send | nsubj |
| 6 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 7 send | aux |
| 7 | send | send | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 8 | Agbor | Agbor | PROPN | Number=Sing | 10 son | nmod:poss |
| 9 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 8 Agbor | case |
| 10 | son | son | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 send | obj |
| 11 | to | to | PART | _ | 12 blow | mark |
| 12 | blow | blow | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 7 send | advcl |
| 13 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 14 bellows | det |
| 14 | bellows | bellow | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 blow | obj |
| 15 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 27 plunge | punct |
| 16 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 27 plunge | cc |
| 17 | that | that | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 27 plunge | nsubj |
| 18 | when | when | SCONJ | _ | 23 hot | mark |
| 19 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 20 iron | det |
| 20 | iron | iron | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 hot | nsubj |
| 21 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 23 hot | cop |
| 22 | red | red | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 23 hot | amod |
| 23 | hot | hot | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 27 plunge | advcl |
| 24 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 25 blacksmith | det |
| 25 | blacksmith | blacksmith | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 plunge | nsubj |
| 26 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 27 plunge | aux |
| 27 | plunge | plunge | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 7 send | conj |
| 28 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 27 plunge | obj |
| 29 | into | into | SCONJ | _ | 32 ’s | mark |
| 30 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 31 boy | det |
| 31 | boy | boy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 32 ’s | nsubj |
| 32 | ’s | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 27 plunge | advcl |
| 33 | inside | inside | ADV | _ | 32 ’s | advmod |
| 34 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 39 die | punct |
| 35 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 39 die | cc |
| 36 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 39 die | mark |
| 37 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 39 die | nsubj |
| 38 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 39 die | aux |
| 39 | die | die | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 7 send | conj |
| 40 | in | in | ADP | _ | 42 pain | case |
| 41 | great | great | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 42 pain | amod |
| 42 | pain | pain | NOUN | Number=Sing | 39 die | obl |
| 43 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 7 send | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | day | That | tree rules | ||||||
| 2 | send | would | head | Agbor's son | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Theme | ||||
| 3 | blow | to-infinitive | head not said here | the bellows | vn split-23.2 «NP V NP apart»: agent=Agent bellow=Patient | ||||
| 4 | is | past | the iron | hot property | tree rules | ||||
| 5 | plunge | would | that | blacksmith | vn meander-47.7-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location it=Theme | ||||
| 6 | die | would | head | in great pain | vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in pain=Attribute |
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/pg70959/8/48/