Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xii.--concerning the Okuni Witches and Cannibalism., sentence 66
So at last he made up his mind to tell his eldest brother, whose name was Nkanyan, all about the witches and the difficulty he was in.
Who acts: man, name, Nkanyan · What happens: make up, tell, be, mind, name · To what, where: mind, last, eldest brother, Nkanyan, difficulty · 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 (man, name, Nkanyan), 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 | So | so | ADV | _ | 5 made | advmod |
| 2 | at | at | ADP | _ | 3 last | case |
| 3 | last | last | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 made | obl |
| 4 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 made | nsubj |
| 5 | made | make | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 6 | up | up | ADP | _ | 5 made | compound:prt |
| 7 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 8 mind | nmod:poss |
| 8 | mind | mind | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 made | obj |
| 9 | to | to | PART | _ | 10 tell | mark |
| 10 | tell | tell | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 5 made | advcl |
| 11 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 13 brother | nmod:poss |
| 12 | eldest | eld | ADJ | Degree=Sup | 13 brother | amod |
| 13 | brother | brother | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 tell | obj |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 Nkanyan | punct |
| 15 | whose | whose | PRON | Poss=Yes PronType=Rel | 16 name | nmod:poss |
| 16 | name | name | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 Nkanyan | nsubj |
| 17 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 18 Nkanyan | cop |
| 18 | Nkanyan | Nkanyan | PROPN | Number=Sing | 13 brother | appos |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 23 witches | punct |
| 20 | all | all | ADV | _ | 23 witches | advmod |
| 21 | about | about | ADP | _ | 23 witches | case |
| 22 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 23 witches | det |
| 23 | witches | witch | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 tell | obl |
| 24 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 26 difficulty | cc |
| 25 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 26 difficulty | det |
| 26 | difficulty | difficulty | NOUN | Number=Sing | 23 witches | conj |
| 27 | he | he | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 29 in | nsubj |
| 28 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 29 in | cop |
| 29 | in | in | ADV | _ | 26 difficulty | acl:relcl |
| 30 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 made | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | make up | past | man | man's mind | last | vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme mind=Pivot | |||
| 2 | tell speech: assert | to-infinitive | man not said here | man's eldest brother | about the witches and the difficulty | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent brother=Recipient about witch=Topic | |||
| 3 | is a | past | Nkanyan's name | Nkanyan | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | is | past | man | the difficulty not said here | in property | tree rules | |||
| 5 | mind | man | nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=agent | ||||||
| 6 | name | Nkanyan | nom name «communication transitive»: poss=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.
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