---
title: He will then take one stick from a bundle, and holding it up will sa… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: He will then take one stick from a bundle, and holding it up will say: “That is two calabashes of tombo I gave to the father.” Who acts: man, holding, That, two calabashes. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Opening, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 18

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He will then take one stick from a bundle, and holding it up will say: “That is two calabashes of tombo I gave to the father.”

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**Who acts:** man, holding, That, two calabashes · **What happens:** take, hold up, say, be, give · **To what, where:** one stick, bundle, book, two calabashes, father · **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 (man, holding, That, two calabashes), 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:pg70959:1:18
# text = He will then take one stick from a bundle, and holding it up will say: “That is two calabashes of tombo I gave to the father.”
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
4	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	nummod	_	_
6	stick	stick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	from	from	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	bundle	bundle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
12	holding	hold	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	16	csubj	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	up	up	ADP	RP	_	12	compound:prt	_	_
15	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	22	punct	_	_
18	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	22	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	That	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	22	nsubj	_	_
20	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	22	cop	_	_
21	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	22	nummod	_	_
22	calabashes	calabash	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	26	nsubj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	tombo	tombo	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
25	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	ccomp	_	_
27	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | future | man | one stick |  | a bundle | then |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent stick=Theme from bundle=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **hold up** | gerund |  | book |  |  |  |  | vn support-15.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot it=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | future | holding |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | That | two calabashes |  |  |  | of tombo | tree rules |
| 5 | **give** *in a quote* | past | two calabashes |  | the father |  |  | I *nsubj* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to father=Recipient |

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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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