Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed., sentence 7

Up to the time the infant was one year old he never gave the mother or child a present, and when, as he grew up, the father saw his little son playing about the house he never called him to come to him or dashed him anything as he did to his other children.

Who acts: infant, father, little son · What happens: be, not give, grow up, see, play, not call · To what, where: present, mother, little son, 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 (infant, father, little 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	Up	up	ADV	_	10 old	advmod
2	to	to	ADP	_	4 time	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 time	det
4	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 old	obl
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 infant	det
6	infant	infant	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 old	nsubj
7	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 old	cop
8	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	9 year	nummod
9	year	year	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 old	obl:unmarked
10	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
11	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 gave	nsubj
12	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	13 gave	advmod
13	gave	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 old	acl:relcl
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 mother	det
15	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 gave	obj
16	or	or	CCONJ	_	17 child	cc
17	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 mother	conj
18	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	19 present	det
19	present	present	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 gave	obj
20	,	,	PUNCT	_	31 saw	punct
21	and	and	CCONJ	_	31 saw	cc
22	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	26 grew	advmod
23	,	,	PUNCT	_	26 grew	punct
24	as	as	SCONJ	_	26 grew	mark
25	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	26 grew	nsubj
26	grew	grow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	31 saw	parataxis
27	up	up	ADP	_	26 grew	compound:prt
28	,	,	PUNCT	_	31 saw	punct
29	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	30 father	det
30	father	father	NOUN	Number=Sing	31 saw	nsubj
31	saw	see	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 old	parataxis
32	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	34 son	nmod:poss
33	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	34 son	amod
34	son	son	NOUN	Number=Sing	31 saw	obj
35	playing	play	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	31 saw	xcomp
36	about	about	ADP	_	38 house	case
37	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	38 house	det
38	house	house	NOUN	Number=Sing	35 playing	obl
39	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	41 called	nsubj
40	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	41 called	advmod
41	called	call	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	38 house	acl:relcl
42	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	41 called	obj
43	to	to	PART	_	44 come	mark
44	come	come	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	41 called	xcomp
45	to	to	ADP	_	46 him	case
46	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	44 come	obl
47	or	or	CCONJ	_	48 dashed	cc
48	dashed	dash	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	31 saw	conj
49	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	48 dashed	obj
50	anything	anything	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	48 dashed	obj
51	as	as	SCONJ	_	53 did	mark
52	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	53 did	nsubj
53	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	48 dashed	advcl
54	to	to	ADP	_	57 children	case
55	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	57 children	nmod:poss
56	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	57 children	amod
57	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	53 did	obl
58	.	.	PUNCT	_	10 old	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the infant			time; year	old property	tree rules
2	not give	past	infant	a present	the mother or child			vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent mother=Recipient present=Theme
3	grow up	past	infant					vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
4	see	past	the father	father's little son				tree rules
5	play	gerund	father's little son not said here				about the house	vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
6	not call	past	infant	father				tree rules
7	come	to-infinitive	infant not said here		father			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to he=Initial_Location
8	dash	past	the father not said here	father			anything obj	vn hit-18.1 «NP V NP ADJP»: agent=Agent he=Patient anything=Result
9	do	past	infant				to infant's other children	vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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/pg70959/8/7/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed., sentence 7

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed., sentence 7