Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xii.--concerning the Okuni Witches and Cannibalism., sentence 58

One night when the boy went to the feast the witches told him that it was his turn to provide a body for food, but Amoru said he was too young and had no one to give.

Who acts: boy, witches, feast, Amoru · What happens: go, tell, be, provide, say, have · To what, where: feast, boy, turn, body, one · Speech: someone speaks here

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, witches, feast, 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	One	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	2 night	nummod
2	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 went	obl:unmarked
3	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	6 went	advmod
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 boy	det
5	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 went	nsubj
6	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	to	to	ADP	_	9 feast	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 feast	det
9	feast	feast	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 went	obl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 witches	det
11	witches	witch	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 told	nsubj
12	told	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 went	advcl
13	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 told	iobj
14	that	that	SCONJ	_	18 turn	mark
15	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	18 turn	nsubj
16	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	18 turn	cop
17	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	18 turn	nmod:poss
18	turn	turn	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 told	ccomp
19	to	to	PART	_	20 provide	mark
20	provide	provide	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 told	ccomp
21	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	22 body	det
22	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 provide	obj
23	for	for	ADP	_	24 food	case
24	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 provide	obl
25	,	,	PUNCT	_	28 said	punct
26	but	but	CCONJ	_	28 said	cc
27	Amoru	Amoru	PROPN	Number=Sing	28 said	nsubj
28	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 went	conj
29	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	32 young	nsubj
30	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	32 young	cop
31	too	too	ADV	_	32 young	advmod
32	young	young	ADJ	Degree=Pos	28 said	ccomp
33	and	and	CCONJ	_	34 had	cc
34	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 went	conj
35	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	36 one	det
36	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	34 had	obj
37	to	to	PART	_	38 give	mark
38	give	give	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	36 one	acl
39	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 went	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go	past	the boy			the feast	night		vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to feast=Initial_Location
2	tell speech: assert	past	the witches		boy				vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic
3	is a	past	feast	boy's turn				boy nmod:poss	tree rules
4	provide not said to happen	to-infinitive		a body				for food	vn ensure-99 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Precondition body=Theme for food=Beneficiary
5	say speech: assert	past	Amoru						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
6	is	past	Amoru					young property	tree rules
7	have	past	the boy not said here	no one					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Patient
8	give	to-infinitive	the boy not said here	no one not said here					vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=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.

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🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xii.--concerning the Okuni Witches and Cannibalism., sentence 58

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xii.--concerning the Okuni Witches and Cannibalism., sentence 58