---
title: Then, for some time, Agbor took much trouble in taming the bird, and… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: Then, for some time, Agbor took much trouble in taming the bird, and taught it to sing. Who acts: Agbor. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xiv.--the Fate of Agbor the Hunter, Who Killed His Wife and Children., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xiv.--the Fate of Agbor the Hunter, Who Killed His Wife and Children., sentence 10

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Then, for some time, Agbor took much trouble in taming the bird, and taught it to sing.

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**Who acts:** Agbor · **What happens:** take, tame, teach, sing · **To what, where:** much trouble, bird

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This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xiv.--the Fate of Agbor the Hunter, Who Killed His Wife and Children.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Agbor), 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:pg70959:11:10
# text = Then, for some time, Agbor took much trouble in taming the bird, and taught it to sing.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	for	for	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	5	det	_	_
5	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	Agbor	Agbor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	trouble	trouble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
12	taming	tame	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	taught	teach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
18	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	sing	sing	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | Agbor | much trouble |  |  | then; time |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent trouble=Theme |
| 2 | **tame** | gerund | Agbor *not said here* | the bird |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent bird=Patient |
| 3 | **teach** *speech: other* | past | Agbor *not said here* |  | bird |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent it=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **sing** *speech: express* | to-infinitive | Agbor *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=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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