Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xii.--concerning the Okuni Witches and Cannibalism., sentence 84
The people then took the witches to the palaver house, and Chief ’Ndabu sent word to the other chiefs that they would be tried at once.
Who acts: people, Ndabu · What happens: take, send, try · To what, where: witches, palaver house, word, other chiefs, people
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 (people, Ndabu), 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 people | det |
| 2 | people | people | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 took | nsubj |
| 3 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 4 took | advmod |
| 4 | took | take | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 witches | det |
| 6 | witches | witch | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 took | obj |
| 7 | to | to | ADP | _ | 10 house | case |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 house | det |
| 9 | palaver | palaver | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 house | compound |
| 10 | house | house | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 took | obl |
| 11 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 16 sent | punct |
| 12 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 16 sent | cc |
| 13 | Chief | Chief | PROPN | Number=Sing | 15 Ndabu | nmod:poss |
| 14 | ’ | 's | PART | _ | 13 Chief | case |
| 15 | Ndabu | Ndabu | PROPN | Number=Sing | 16 sent | nsubj |
| 16 | sent | send | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 took | conj |
| 17 | word | word | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 sent | obj |
| 18 | to | to | ADP | _ | 21 chiefs | case |
| 19 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 21 chiefs | det |
| 20 | other | other | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 21 chiefs | amod |
| 21 | chiefs | chief | NOUN | Number=Plur | 16 sent | obl |
| 22 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 26 tried | mark |
| 23 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 26 tried | nsubj |
| 24 | would | would | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 26 tried | aux |
| 25 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 26 tried | aux:pass |
| 26 | tried | try | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 16 sent | advcl |
| 27 | at | at | ADP | _ | 28 once | case |
| 28 | once | once | ADV | NumForm=Word NumType=Mult | 26 tried | obl |
| 29 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 took | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | take | past | the people | the witches | the palaver house | then | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent witch=Theme to house=Destination | ||
| 2 | send | past | Chief's Ndabu | word | the other chiefs | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent word=Theme to chief=Destination | |||
| 3 | try | would · passive | people | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality |
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/pg70959/9/84/