Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed., sentence 52
His father pretended to pity the boy, and told him that he would send him the next day to his friend the leopard to look after him, and that he should stay there for ten nights.
Who acts: father, son · What happens: pretend, pity, tell, send, look, stay · To what, where: boy, father, leopard, son · 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 (father, son), 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 | His | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 2 father | nmod:poss |
| 2 | father | father | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 pretended | nsubj |
| 3 | pretended | pretend | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | to | to | PART | _ | 5 pity | mark |
| 5 | pity | pity | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 pretended | xcomp |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 boy | det |
| 7 | boy | boy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 pity | obj |
| 8 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 10 told | punct |
| 9 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 10 told | cc |
| 10 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 3 pretended | conj |
| 11 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 10 told | iobj |
| 12 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 15 send | mark |
| 13 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 15 send | nsubj |
| 14 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 15 send | aux |
| 15 | send | send | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 10 told | xcomp |
| 16 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 15 send | obj |
| 17 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 19 day | det |
| 18 | next | next | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 19 day | amod |
| 19 | day | day | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 send | obl:unmarked |
| 20 | to | to | ADP | _ | 22 friend | case |
| 21 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 22 friend | nmod:poss |
| 22 | friend | friend | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 send | obl |
| 23 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 24 leopard | det |
| 24 | leopard | leopard | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 send | obj |
| 25 | to | to | PART | _ | 26 look | mark |
| 26 | look | look | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 15 send | advcl |
| 27 | after | after | ADP | _ | 28 him | case |
| 28 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 26 look | obl |
| 29 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 34 stay | punct |
| 30 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 34 stay | cc |
| 31 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 34 stay | mark |
| 32 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 34 stay | nsubj |
| 33 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 34 stay | aux |
| 34 | stay | stay | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 3 pretended | conj |
| 35 | there | there | ADV | PronType=Dem | 34 stay | advmod |
| 36 | for | for | ADP | _ | 38 nights | case |
| 37 | ten | ten | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 38 nights | nummod |
| 38 | nights | night | NOUN | Number=Plur | 34 stay | obl |
| 39 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 3 pretended | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | pretend | past | son's father | tree rules | |||||
| 2 | pity | to-infinitive | son's father not said here | the boy | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer boy=Stimulus | ||||
| 3 | tell speech: assert | past | son's father not said here | father | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 4 | send not said to happen | would | father | the leopard | son | day | to son's friend | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Destination leopard=Theme | |
| 5 | look | to-infinitive | father not said here | after son | vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus | ||||
| 6 | stay | should | son | there | night | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
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.
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