---
title: The elephant’s wife then brought the soup she had made, and the elep… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: The elephant’s wife then brought the soup she had made, and the elephant and the hawk sat down together and finished it. Who acts: wife, elephant. 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., w
---

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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 16

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The elephant’s wife then brought the soup she had made, and the elephant and the hawk sat down together and finished it.

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**Who acts:** wife, elephant · **What happens:** bring, make, sit down, finish · **To what, where:** soup

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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 (wife, elephant), 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:pg70959:13:16
# text = The elephant’s wife then brought the soup she had made, and the elephant and the hawk sat down together and finished it.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	’s	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
6	brought	bring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	soup	soup	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	8	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	hawk	hawk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	_
19	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
20	down	down	ADP	RP	_	19	compound:prt	_	_
21	together	together	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
23	finished	finish	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **bring** | past | the elephant's wife | the soup |  |  | then |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent soup=Theme |
| 2 | **make** | past · perfect | wife | the soup *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent soup=Product |
| 3 | **sit down** | past | the elephant and the hawk |  |  |  |  | together *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **finish** | past | the elephant and the hawk *not said here* | soup |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality it=Eventuality |

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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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