---
title: He therefore crawled along sideways to the elephant’s house, and tol… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: He therefore crawled along sideways to the elephant’s house, and told the elephant’s wife that the place where they had been hunting was very cold and that her husband wished her to make him some good soup and that she was not to forget to put plenty of peppers in it. Who acts: crab, sideways, husba
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xviii.--how the River Came Into Existence; Or, Why a Crab Has No Head., sentence 12

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He therefore crawled along sideways to the elephant’s house, and told the elephant’s wife that the place where they had been hunting was very cold and that her husband wished her to make him some good soup and that she was not to forget to put plenty of peppers in it.

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**Who acts:** crab, sideways, husband, wife · **What happens:** crawl, tell, be, wish, make, not be · **To what, where:** house, wife, good soup, crab, plenty, hunting · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xviii.--how the River Came Into Existence; Or, Why a Crab Has No Head.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (crab, sideways, husband, wife), 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:pg70959:13:12
# text = He therefore crawled along sideways to the elephant’s house, and told the elephant’s wife that the place where they had been hunting was very cold and that her husband wished her to make him some good soup and that she was not to forget to put plenty of peppers in it.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	therefore	therefore	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	crawled	crawl	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	along	along	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	sideways	sideway	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	’s	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	_
10	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	’s	's	PART	POS	_	15	case	_	_
17	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	ccomp	_	_
21	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	28	advmod	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
23	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
24	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	28	cop	_	_
25	hunting	hunting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
27	very	very	ADV	RB	_	28	advmod	_	_
28	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	acl:relcl	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
30	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	33	mark	_	_
31	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	nmod:poss	_	_
32	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj	_	_
33	wished	wish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	conj	_	_
34	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obj	_	_
35	to	to	PART	TO	_	36	mark	_	_
36	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	advcl	_	_
37	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	36	obj	_	_
38	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	40	det	_	_
39	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	_
40	soup	soup	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obj	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	47	cc	_	_
42	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	47	mark	_	_
43	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	47	nsubj	_	_
44	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	47	cop	_	_
45	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	47	advmod	_	_
46	to	to	PART	TO	_	47	mark	_	_
47	forget	forget	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	36	conj	_	_
48	to	to	PART	TO	_	49	mark	_	_
49	put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	47	xcomp	_	_
50	plenty	plenty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	obj	_	_
51	of	of	ADP	IN	_	52	case	_	_
52	peppers	pepper	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	50	nmod	_	_
53	in	in	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
54	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	49	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **crawl** | past | crab |  |  | the elephant's house |  | along sideways; therefore *property* | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to house=Destination |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past |  |  | the elephant's wife |  |  | the place *ccomp* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent wife=Recipient |
| 3 | **is** | past · perfect | sideways *= sideway* |  |  |  |  | hunting *nsubj*; cold *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **wish** | past | wife's husband | wife |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot she=Theme |
| 5 | **make** | to-infinitive | wife's husband *not said here* | some good soup | crab |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP NP»: agent=Asset he=Beneficiary soup=Product |
| 6 | **not** **is** | past | wife |  |  |  |  | forget *property* | tree rules |
| 7 | **put** | to-infinitive | wife *not said here* | plenty of peppers |  | hunting |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent plenty=Theme in it=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.

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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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