---
title: He will then place the stick on the ground and take another, saying… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: He will then place the stick on the ground and take another, saying “This is one fathom of cloth I gave to the girl.” Who acts: place stick, This. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Opening, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 19

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He will then place the stick on the ground and take another, saying “This is one fathom of cloth I gave to the girl.”

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**Who acts:** place stick, This · **What happens:** take, say, be, give · **To what, where:** another, one fathom, cloth, girl, place stick · **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 (place stick, This), 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:pg70959:1:19
# text = He will then place the stick on the ground and take another, saying “This is one fathom of cloth I gave to the girl.”
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
2	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
3	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
4	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	stick	stick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
12	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	saying	say	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	6	acl	_	_
15	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	19	nsubj	_	_
17	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
18	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	19	nummod	_	_
19	fathom	fathom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	ccomp	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	cloth	cloth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	_
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	acl:relcl	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | infinitive |  | another |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent another=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | the place stick  man on the ground *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | This | one fathom |  |  |  | of cloth | tree rules |
| 4 | **give** *in a quote* | past | the place stick  man on the ground *= stick* | cloth *not said here* | the girl |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent cloth=Theme to girl=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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