---
title: I said, “Nonsense,” or something to that effect, and thought no more… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: I said, “Nonsense,” or something to that effect, and thought no more about it. Who acts: I. 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 88

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I said, “Nonsense,” or something to that effect, and thought no more about it.

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** say, think · **To what, where:** more · **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 (I), 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:pg70959:1:88
# text = I said, “Nonsense,” or something to that effect, and thought no more about it.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	Nonsense	nonsense	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	5	punct	_	_
8	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	something	something	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	5	conj	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	12	det	_	_
12	effect	effect	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
16	no	no	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	more	more	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	15	obj	_	_
18	about	about	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | I |  |  |  |  | Nonsense  something to that effect *ccomp* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **think** *speech: other* | past | I *not said here* | more |  |  |  | about effect | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot more=Theme |

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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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