Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xii.--concerning the Okuni Witches and Cannibalism., sentence 86
The people of the town were much surprised that the night had been so short, but when they heard that the night calabash had been broken and the witches captured, they were very glad, and went to have a look at them.
Who acts: people, night, witches · What happens: be, hear, break, capture, go, have · To what, where: night calabash, look · 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 (people, night, witches), 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 | 8 surprised | nsubj |
| 3 | of | of | ADP | _ | 5 town | case |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 town | det |
| 5 | town | town | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 people | nmod |
| 6 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 surprised | cop |
| 7 | much | much | ADV | _ | 8 surprised | advmod |
| 8 | surprised | surprised | ADJ | Degree=Pos | root | root |
| 9 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 15 short | mark |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 11 night | det |
| 11 | night | night | NOUN | Number=Sing | 15 short | nsubj |
| 12 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 15 short | aux |
| 13 | been | be | AUX | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 15 short | cop |
| 14 | so | so | ADV | _ | 15 short | advmod |
| 15 | short | short | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 surprised | advcl |
| 16 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 heard | punct |
| 17 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 20 heard | cc |
| 18 | when | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 20 heard | advmod |
| 19 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 20 heard | nsubj |
| 20 | heard | hear | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 8 surprised | parataxis |
| 21 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 27 broken | mark |
| 22 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 24 calabash | det |
| 23 | night | night | NOUN | Number=Sing | 24 calabash | compound |
| 24 | calabash | calabash | NOUN | Number=Sing | 27 broken | nsubj:pass |
| 25 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 27 broken | aux |
| 26 | been | be | AUX | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 27 broken | aux:pass |
| 27 | broken | break | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 20 heard | ccomp |
| 28 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 36 glad | cc |
| 29 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 30 witches | det |
| 30 | witches | witch | NOUN | Number=Plur | 36 glad | nsubj |
| 31 | captured | capture | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 36 glad | advcl |
| 32 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 31 captured | punct |
| 33 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 36 glad | nsubj |
| 34 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 36 glad | cop |
| 35 | very | very | ADV | _ | 36 glad | advmod |
| 36 | glad | glad | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 27 broken | conj |
| 37 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 39 went | punct |
| 38 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 39 went | cc |
| 39 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 20 heard | conj |
| 40 | to | to | PART | _ | 41 have | mark |
| 41 | have | have | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 39 went | xcomp |
| 42 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 43 look | det |
| 43 | look | look | NOUN | Number=Sing | 41 have | obj |
| 44 | at | at | ADP | _ | 45 them | case |
| 45 | them | they | PRON | Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 43 look | nmod |
| 46 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 8 surprised | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | past | the people of the town | surprised property | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | is | past · perfect | the night | short property | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | hear | past | people | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus | |||||
| 4 | break | past · perfect · passive | the night calabash | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient | |||||
| 5 | capture | participle | the witches not said here | vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 6 | is | past | the witches | people nsubj; glad property | tree rules | ||||
| 7 | go | past | people not said here | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||||
| 8 | have | to-infinitive | people not said here | a look | at people | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent look=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/pg70959/9/86/