Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xii.--concerning the Okuni Witches and Cannibalism., sentence 98

His body was then burnt all except the skull which would not burn, so the people cut it into pieces with an axe and threw the broken pieces on the fire.

Who acts: skull, people · What happens: burnt, not burn, cut, throw, break · To what, where: body, pieces, broken pieces, fire

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 (skull, 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	His	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 body	nmod:poss
2	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 burnt	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 burnt	aux:pass
4	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	5 burnt	advmod
5	burnt	burnt	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	5 burnt	obj
7	except	except	ADP	_	9 skull	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 skull	det
9	skull	skull	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 burnt	obl
10	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	13 burn	nsubj
11	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	13 burn	aux
12	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	13 burn	advmod
13	burn	burn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 skull	acl:relcl
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 cut	punct
15	so	so	ADV	_	18 cut	advmod
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 people	det
17	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	18 cut	nsubj
18	cut	cut	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 burnt	parataxis
19	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	18 cut	obj
20	into	into	ADP	_	21 pieces	case
21	pieces	piece	NOUN	Number=Plur	18 cut	obl
22	with	with	ADP	_	24 axe	case
23	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	24 axe	det
24	axe	axe	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 cut	obl
25	and	and	CCONJ	_	26 threw	cc
26	threw	throw	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	18 cut	conj
27	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	29 pieces	det
28	broken	break	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	29 pieces	amod
29	pieces	piece	NOUN	Number=Plur	26 threw	obj
30	on	on	ADP	_	32 fire	case
31	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	32 fire	det
32	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	26 threw	obl
33	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 burnt	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	burnt	past · passive		chief's body		then	except the skull	tree rules
2	not burn	would	the skull					vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	cut	past	the people	body			into pieces result; with a axe	vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V NP PP.result PP.instrument»: agent=Agent it=Patient into piece=Result with axe=Instrument
4	throw	past	the people not said here	the broken pieces	the fire			vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent piece=Theme on fire=Destination
5	break	participle						vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=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/pg70959/9/98/

🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xii.--concerning the Okuni Witches and Cannibalism., sentence 98

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xii.--concerning the Okuni Witches and Cannibalism., sentence 98