Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xii.--concerning the Okuni Witches and Cannibalism., sentence 93
The chiefs then went outside to consult as they were afraid to talk in front of the witches.
Who acts: chiefs, people · What happens: go, consult, be, talk · To what, where: front
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 (chiefs, people), 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 chiefs | det |
| 2 | chiefs | chief | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 went | nsubj |
| 3 | then | then | ADV | PronType=Dem | 4 went | advmod |
| 4 | went | go | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | outside | outside | ADV | _ | 4 went | advmod |
| 6 | to | to | PART | _ | 7 consult | mark |
| 7 | consult | consult | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 went | xcomp |
| 8 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 11 afraid | mark |
| 9 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 11 afraid | nsubj |
| 10 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 11 afraid | cop |
| 11 | afraid | afraid | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 consult | advcl |
| 12 | to | to | PART | _ | 13 talk | mark |
| 13 | talk | talk | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 11 afraid | xcomp |
| 14 | in | in | ADP | _ | 15 front | case |
| 15 | front | front | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 talk | obl |
| 16 | of | of | ADP | _ | 18 witches | case |
| 17 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 18 witches | det |
| 18 | witches | witch | NOUN | Number=Plur | 15 front | nmod |
| 19 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 4 went | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | go | past | the chiefs | then | outside property | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic | |||
| 2 | consult | to-infinitive | the chiefs not said here | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 3 | is | past | people | afraid property | tree rules | ||||
| 4 | talk | to-infinitive | people not said here | front of the witches | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=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.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/9/93/