Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xii.--concerning the Okuni Witches and Cannibalism., sentence 87
Chief ’Ndabu told the chiefs what had happened in his house the previous night.
Who acts: Ndabu · What happens: tell, happen · To what, where: chiefs, house · 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 (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 | Chief | Chief | PROPN | Number=Sing | 3 Ndabu | nmod:poss |
| 2 | ’ | 's | PART | _ | 1 Chief | case |
| 3 | Ndabu | Ndabu | PROPN | Number=Sing | 4 told | nsubj |
| 4 | told | tell | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 6 chiefs | det |
| 6 | chiefs | chief | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 told | obj |
| 7 | what | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 9 happened | nsubj |
| 8 | had | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 happened | aux |
| 9 | happened | happen | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 4 told | ccomp |
| 10 | in | in | ADP | _ | 12 house | case |
| 11 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 12 house | nmod:poss |
| 12 | house | house | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 happened | obl |
| 13 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 night | det |
| 14 | previous | previous | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 15 night | amod |
| 15 | night | night | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 happened | obl:unmarked |
| 16 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 told | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | tell speech: assert | past | Chief's Ndabu | the chiefs | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent chief=Recipient clause=Topic | ||||
| 2 | happen | past · perfect | Ndabu's house | night | what nsubj | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in house=Location |
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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