---
title: An owl was disturbed from one of the trees which was covered with cr… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: An owl was disturbed from one of the trees which was covered with creepers, and flew out hooting. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Opening, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/1/85/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/) / [Opening](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/1/) / 85

# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 85

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
An owl was disturbed from one of the trees which was covered with creepers, and flew out hooting.

<!-- .vintro -->
**What happens:** disturb, cover, fly out, hoot · **To what, where:** owl, trees

<!-- .vabout -->
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: what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg70959:1:85
# text = An owl was disturbed from one of the trees which was covered with creepers, and flew out hooting.
1	An	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	owl	owl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	disturbed	disturb	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	from	from	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	obl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	trees	tree	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	_
10	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux:pass	_	_
12	covered	cover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	acl:relcl	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	creepers	creeper	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	flew	fly	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
18	out	out	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	_
19	hooting	hoot	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	17	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **disturb** | past · passive |  | a owl |  |  |  | from one of the trees | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer |
| 2 | **cover** | past · passive |  | the trees |  |  |  | with creepers | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: subject=Destination with creeper=Theme |
| 3 | **fly out** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **hoot** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 84](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/1/84/)
- next →: [sentence 86](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/1/86/)
- ↑ back to [Opening](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/1/)