Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed., sentence 73
The boys, thinking their father was about to die, began to dispute amongst themselves as to what share of their father’s property each should take.
Who acts: boys, father, each · What happens: think, be, die, begin, dispute, take · To what, where: property · 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 (boys, father, each), 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 boys | det |
| 2 | boys | boy | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 began | nsubj |
| 3 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 4 thinking | punct |
| 4 | thinking | think | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 2 boys | conj |
| 5 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 6 father | nmod:poss |
| 6 | father | father | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 about | nsubj |
| 7 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 about | cop |
| 8 | about | about | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 thinking | ccomp |
| 9 | to | to | PART | _ | 10 die | mark |
| 10 | die | die | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 8 about | xcomp |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 2 boys | punct |
| 12 | began | begin | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 13 | to | to | PART | _ | 14 dispute | mark |
| 14 | dispute | dispute | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 12 began | xcomp |
| 15 | amongst | amongst | ADP | _ | 16 themselves | case |
| 16 | themselves | themselves | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes | 14 dispute | obl |
| 17 | as | as | ADP | ExtPos=ADP | 20 share | case |
| 18 | to | to | ADP | _ | 17 as | fixed |
| 19 | what | what | DET | PronType=Int | 20 share | det |
| 20 | share | share | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 dispute | obl |
| 21 | of | of | ADP | _ | 25 property | case |
| 22 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 23 father | nmod:poss |
| 23 | father | father | NOUN | Number=Sing | 25 property | nmod:poss |
| 24 | ’s | 's | PART | _ | 23 father | case |
| 25 | property | property | NOUN | Number=Sing | 20 share | nmod |
| 26 | each | each | DET | PronType=Tot | 28 take | nsubj |
| 27 | should | should | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 28 take | aux |
| 28 | take | take | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 25 property | acl:relcl |
| 29 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 12 began | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | think speech: other | gerund | the boys not said here | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 2 | is | past | eyes's father | about property | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | die | to-infinitive | eyes's father not said here | vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute | |||||
| 4 | begin | past | the boys | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 5 | dispute | to-infinitive | the boys not said here | amongst eyes = eye; as what share of eyes's father's property | vn battle-36.4 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 6 | take | should | each | eyes's father's property not said here | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent property=Theme | ||||
| 7 | share | eyes's father's property | nom share «possession transitive»: of=patient |
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/pg70959/8/73/