---
title: The tortoise then beat his drum louder and louder, and faster and fa… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: The tortoise then beat his drum louder and louder, and faster and faster, telling the ju-ju man to dance further off, as he would hear the drum better. Who acts: tortoise, man. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xiii.--of Chief Amaza, His Wife Achi and th
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xiii.--of Chief Amaza, His Wife Achi and the Tortoise., sentence 37

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The tortoise then beat his drum louder and louder, and faster and faster, telling the ju-ju man to dance further off, as he would hear the drum better.

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**Who acts:** tortoise, man · **What happens:** beat, tell, dance, hear · **To what, where:** drum, ju man · **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 (tortoise, man), 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:pg70959:10:37
# text = The tortoise then beat his drum louder and louder, and faster and faster, telling the ju-ju man to dance further off, as he would hear the drum better.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	tortoise	tortoise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
4	beat	beat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	drum	drum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	louder	loud	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	4	xcomp	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	louder	loud	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	faster	fast	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	4	parataxis	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	faster	fast	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	telling	tell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
18	ju	ju	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	18	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	ju	ju	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
22	to	to	PART	TO	_	23	mark	_	_
23	dance	dance	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
24	further	further	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	off	off	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
27	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	conj	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	drum	drum	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
33	better	good	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	30	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **beat** | past | the tortoise | tortoise's drum |  |  | then | loud *property* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location drum=Theme |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | gerund | the tortoise *not said here* |  | the ju man |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent man=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **dance** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the tortoise *not said here* |  |  |  |  | off *property* | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **hear** | would | man | the drum |  |  |  | good *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer drum=Stimulus |

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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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