---
title: In the evenings the tortoise used to play his drum very skilfully fo… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: In the evenings the tortoise used to play his drum very skilfully for the people to dance, and as a reward they used to give him dried fish, which he put in the bag. Who acts: tortoise, people, dried fish. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xiii.--of Chie
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/10/18/)

<!-- 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/) / [Xiii.--of Chief Amaza, His Wife Achi a…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/10/) / 18

# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xiii.--of Chief Amaza, His Wife Achi and the Tortoise., sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
In the evenings the tortoise used to play his drum very skilfully for the people to dance, and as a reward they used to give him dried fish, which he put in the bag.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** tortoise, people, dried fish · **What happens:** use, play, dance, give, dry, put · **To what, where:** drum, dried fish, tortoise, bag

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xiii.--of Chief Amaza, His Wife Achi and the Tortoise.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (tortoise, people, dried fish), 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:pg70959:10:18
# text = In the evenings the tortoise used to play his drum very skilfully for the people to dance, and as a reward they used to give him dried fish, which he put in the bag.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	evenings	evening	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	tortoise	tortoise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	play	play	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	drum	drum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	very	very	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	skilfully	skilfully	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
13	for	for	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	dance	dance	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
20	as	as	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	reward	reward	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
27	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	iobj	_	_
28	dried	dry	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	29	amod	_	_
29	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	33	nsubj:outer	_	_
32	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	put	put	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	acl:relcl	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	bag	bag	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **use** | past | the tortoise |  |  |  | evening |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **play** | to-infinitive | the tortoise *not said here* | tortoise's drum |  |  |  | for the people; skilfully *property* | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP PP.predicate»: agent=Agent drum=Theme for people=Eventuality |
| 3 | **dance** | to-infinitive | the tortoise *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **use** | past | people |  |  |  |  | as a reward | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **give** | to-infinitive | people *not said here* | dried fish | tortoise |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient fish=Theme |
| 6 | **dry** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 7 | **put** | past | dried fish |  |  | the bag |  | tortoise *nsubj* | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent in bag=Destination |

<!-- .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 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/10/17/)
- next →: [sentence 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/10/19/)
- ↑ back to [Xiii.--of Chief Amaza, His Wife Achi and the Tortoise.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/10/)