Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xii.--concerning the Okuni Witches and Cannibalism., sentence 94
When they returned they ordered the witches to be tied up to trees and burnt alive, but Chief Elullo, being the leader was tortured and kept alive for some time.
Who acts: people · What happens: return, order, tie up, be, torture, keep · To what, where: witches, leader, Chief
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), 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 | When | when | ADV | PronType=Int | 3 returned | advmod |
| 2 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 returned | nsubj |
| 3 | returned | return | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 ordered | advcl |
| 4 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 ordered | nsubj |
| 5 | ordered | order | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 witches | det |
| 7 | witches | witch | NOUN | Number=Plur | 5 ordered | obj |
| 8 | to | to | PART | _ | 10 tied | mark |
| 9 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 10 tied | aux:pass |
| 10 | tied | tie | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 7 witches | acl |
| 11 | up | up | ADP | _ | 10 tied | compound:prt |
| 12 | to | to | ADP | _ | 13 trees | case |
| 13 | trees | tree | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 tied | obl |
| 14 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 16 alive | cc |
| 15 | burnt | burnt | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 16 alive | amod |
| 16 | alive | alive | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 13 trees | conj |
| 17 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 26 tortured | punct |
| 18 | but | but | CCONJ | _ | 26 tortured | cc |
| 19 | Chief | Chief | PROPN | Number=Sing | 26 tortured | nsubj |
| 20 | Elullo | Elullo | PROPN | Number=Sing | 19 Chief | flat |
| 21 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 leader | punct |
| 22 | being | be | AUX | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 24 leader | cop |
| 23 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 24 leader | det |
| 24 | leader | leader | NOUN | Number=Sing | 26 tortured | nsubj:pass |
| 25 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 26 tortured | aux:pass |
| 26 | tortured | torture | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 5 ordered | conj |
| 27 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 28 kept | cc |
| 28 | kept | keep | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 26 tortured | conj |
| 29 | alive | alive | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 28 kept | xcomp |
| 30 | for | for | ADP | _ | 32 time | case |
| 31 | some | some | DET | PronType=Ind | 32 time | det |
| 32 | time | time | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 kept | obl |
| 33 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 5 ordered | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | return | past | people | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 2 | order | past | people | the witches | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent witch=Theme | ||||
| 3 | tie up | to-infinitive · passive | people not said here | to trees | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V ADVP-Middle PP»: to tree=Co-Patient | ||||
| 4 | is a | gerund | the leader | tree rules | |||||
| 5 | torture | past · passive | Chief | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer | |||||
| 6 | keep | participle | time | alive property | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: 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/pg70959/9/94/