---
title: He then dug the skull up again, and placed it on the ground outside… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: He then dug the skull up again, and placed it on the ground outside the door of his house. 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 pragmati
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xiv.--the Fate of Agbor the Hunter, Who Killed His Wife and Children., sentence 40

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He then dug the skull up again, and placed it on the ground outside the door of his house.

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**Who acts:** Agbor · **What happens:** dig up, place · **To what, where:** skull, ground

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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:pg70959:11:40
# text = He then dug the skull up again, and placed it on the ground outside the door of his house.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
3	dug	dig	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	skull	skull	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	up	up	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
7	again	again	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	placed	place	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	_
12	on	on	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
15	outside	outside	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dig up** | past | Agbor | the skull |  |  | then; again |  | vn poke-19-1-1-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent skull=Theme |
| 2 | **place** | past | Agbor *not said here* | skull |  | the ground |  | outside the door of Agbor's house | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme on ground=Destination |

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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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