Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed., sentence 65
The leopard then returned the boy to his father, and said he could not kill him as he was too cunning.
Who acts: leopard · What happens: return, say, not kill, be · To what, where: boy, father · 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 (leopard), 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 leopard | det |
| 2 | leopard | leopard | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 returned | nsubj |
| 3 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 4 returned | advmod |
| 4 | returned | return | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 boy | det |
| 6 | boy | boy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 returned | obj |
| 7 | to | to | ADP | _ | 9 father | case |
| 8 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 9 father | nmod:poss |
| 9 | father | father | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 returned | obl |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 said | punct |
| 11 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 12 said | cc |
| 12 | said | say | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 returned | conj |
| 13 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 kill | nsubj |
| 14 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 16 kill | aux |
| 15 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 16 kill | advmod |
| 16 | kill | kill | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 12 said | ccomp |
| 17 | him | he | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 16 kill | obj |
| 18 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 22 cunning | mark |
| 19 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 22 cunning | nsubj |
| 20 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 22 cunning | cop |
| 21 | too | too | ADV | _ | 22 cunning | advmod |
| 22 | cunning | cunning | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 16 kill | advcl |
| 23 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 returned | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | return | past | the leopard | the boy | leopard's father | then | vn send-11.1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent boy=Theme to father=Destination | ||
| 2 | say speech: assert | past | the leopard not said here | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 3 | not kill | could | leopard | boy | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme | ||||
| 4 | is | past | leopard | cunning 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/pg70959/8/65/