Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xii.--concerning the Okuni Witches and Cannibalism., sentence 56
Every night for a month and a half the boy attended the feast of the witches, and either a man or a woman was always killed and eaten; but Amoru always took his piece of flesh home and placed it with the other meat.
Who acts: boy, Amoru · What happens: attend, kill, eat, take, place · To what, where: feast, man, piece
This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xii.--concerning the Okuni Witches and Cannibalism.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (boy, Amoru), 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 | Every | every | DET | PronType=Tot | 2 night | det |
| 2 | night | night | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 attended | obl:unmarked |
| 3 | for | for | ADP | _ | 5 month | case |
| 4 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 5 month | det |
| 5 | month | month | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 night | nmod |
| 6 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 8 half | cc |
| 7 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 8 half | det |
| 8 | half | half | NOUN | Number=Sing NumForm=Word NumType=Frac | 2 night | conj |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 boy | det |
| 10 | boy | boy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 attended | nsubj |
| 11 | attended | attend | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 13 feast | det |
| 13 | feast | feast | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 attended | obj |
| 14 | of | of | ADP | _ | 16 witches | case |
| 15 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 16 witches | det |
| 16 | witches | witch | NOUN | Number=Plur | 13 feast | nmod |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 27 killed | punct |
| 18 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 27 killed | cc |
| 19 | either | either | CCONJ | _ | 21 man | cc:preconj |
| 20 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 21 man | det |
| 21 | man | man | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 killed | nsubj |
| 22 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 24 woman | cc |
| 23 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 24 woman | det |
| 24 | woman | woman | NOUN | Number=Sing | 21 man | conj |
| 25 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 27 killed | aux:pass |
| 26 | always | always | ADV | PronType=Tot | 27 killed | advmod |
| 27 | killed | kill | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 11 attended | conj |
| 28 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 29 eaten | cc |
| 29 | eaten | eat | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 27 killed | conj |
| 30 | ; | ; | PUNCT | _ | 34 took | punct |
| 31 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 34 took | cc |
| 32 | Amoru | Amoru | PROPN | Number=Sing | 34 took | nsubj |
| 33 | always | always | ADV | PronType=Tot | 34 took | advmod |
| 34 | took | take | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 11 attended | conj |
| 35 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 36 piece | nmod:poss |
| 36 | piece | piece | NOUN | Number=Sing | 34 took | obj |
| 37 | of | of | ADP | _ | 38 flesh | case |
| 38 | flesh | flesh | NOUN | Number=Sing | 36 piece | nmod |
| 39 | home | home | ADV | _ | 34 took | advmod |
| 40 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 41 placed | cc |
| 41 | placed | place | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 34 took | conj |
| 42 | it | it | PRON | Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 41 placed | obj |
| 43 | with | with | ADP | _ | 46 meat | case |
| 44 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 46 meat | det |
| 45 | other | other | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 46 meat | amod |
| 46 | meat | meat | NOUN | Number=Sing | 41 placed | obl |
| 47 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 11 attended | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | attend | past | the boy | the feast of the witches | night | vn attend-107.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme feast=Goal | |||
| 2 | kill | past · passive | a man or a woman | always property | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme | ||||
| 3 | eat | participle | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||||
| 4 | take | past | Amoru | Amoru's piece of flesh | always, home property | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent piece=Theme | |||
| 5 | place | past | Amoru not said here | piece | with the other meat | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent it=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.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/9/56/