---
title: But Achi said “I have nothing to give you. — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: But Achi said “I have nothing to give you. Who acts: Achi. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xiii.--of Chief Amaza, His Wife Achi and the Tortoise., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xiii.--of Chief Amaza, His Wife Achi and the Tortoise., sentence 27

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But Achi said “I have nothing to give you.

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**Who acts:** Achi · **What happens:** say, have, give · **To what, where:** nothing, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Achi), 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:pg70959:10:27
# text = But Achi said “I have nothing to give you.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	Achi	Achi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	have	have	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
7	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	6	obj	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	acl	_	_
10	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	9	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	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 | Achi |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **have** *in a quote* | present | Achi | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient |
| 3 | **give** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | Achi *not said here* | nothing *not said here* | you |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=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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