---
title: There are ten different languages spoken in this district, and it wo… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: There are ten different languages spoken in this district, and it would be extremely difficult to give exact translations of the stories, particularly as some of them as told would be quite unfit for publication. Who acts: ten different languages, stories. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from South
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 101

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There are ten different languages spoken in this district, and it would be extremely difficult to give exact translations of the stories, particularly as some of them as told would be quite unfit for publication.

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**Who acts:** ten different languages, stories · **What happens:** be, speak, give, tell, translate · **To what, where:** ten different languages, district, exact translations · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Opening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (ten different languages, stories), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg70959:1:101
# text = There are ten different languages spoken in this district, and it would be extremely difficult to give exact translations of the stories, particularly as some of them as told would be quite unfit for publication.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	are	be	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	ten	ten	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
4	different	different	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	languages	language	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
6	spoken	speak	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	acl	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	det	_	_
9	district	district	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	expl	_	_
13	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
14	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	cop	_	_
15	extremely	extremely	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	difficult	difficult	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	conj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	exact	exact	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	translations	translation	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	stories	story	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	particularly	particularly	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
26	as	as	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	18	obj	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nmod	_	_
30	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	35	mark	_	_
31	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	35	advcl	_	_
32	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
33	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	cop	_	_
34	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
35	unfit	unfit	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	advcl	_	_
36	for	for	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
37	publication	publication	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **does** | present | ten different languages |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **speak** *speech: other* | participle |  | ten different languages *not said here* |  | this district |  |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | would | ten different languages *not said here* |  |  |  |  | difficult, extremely *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **give** | to-infinitive | ten different languages *not said here* | exact translations of the stories |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent translation=Recipient some=Theme |
| 5 | **tell** *speech: assert* | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **is** | would | ten different languages *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for publication; unfit *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **translate** |  | the stories |  |  |  |  |  | nom translation «communication intransitive»: of=agent |

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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.

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**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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