---
title: It was so noticeable that even the soldiers and carriers remarked up… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: It was so noticeable that even the soldiers and carriers remarked upon the absence of deaths, and could not understand the reason. Who acts: ju, soldiers. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Opening, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cla
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 97

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It was so noticeable that even the soldiers and carriers remarked upon the absence of deaths, and could not understand the reason.

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**Who acts:** ju, soldiers · **What happens:** be, remark, not understand, absent · **To what, where:** reason, deaths

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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 (ju, soldiers), 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:pg70959:1:97
# text = It was so noticeable that even the soldiers and carriers remarked upon the absence of deaths, and could not understand the reason.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	so	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	noticeable	noticeable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
6	even	even	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	soldiers	soldier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	carriers	carrier	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	conj	_	_
11	remarked	remark	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	advcl	_	_
12	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	absence	absence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	deaths	death	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
19	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
21	understand	understand	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	reason	reason	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | ju |  |  |  |  | noticeable *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **remark** *speech: assert* | participle | the soldiers and carriers |  |  |  |  | upon the absence of deaths | vn lecture-37.11-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **understand** | could |  | the reason |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer reason=Stimulus |
| 4 | **absent** |  |  | deaths |  |  |  |  | nom absence «state transitive»: of=patient |

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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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