---
title: The elephant went down to the pond but found to his intense surprise… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: The elephant went down to the pond but found to his intense surprise and disgust that there was no water, and that the pond was full of mud. Who acts: elephant, pond. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xviii.--how the River Came Into Existence; Or, Why a 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/13/18/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/) / [Xviii.--how the River Came Into Existe…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/13/) / 18

# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xviii.--how the River Came Into Existence; Or, Why a Crab Has No Head., sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The elephant went down to the pond but found to his intense surprise and disgust that there was no water, and that the pond was full of mud.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** elephant, pond · **What happens:** go down, find, be, surprise

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (elephant, pond), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg70959:13:18
# text = The elephant went down to the pond but found to his intense surprise and disgust that there was no water, and that the pond was full of mud.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	down	down	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	pond	pond	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
12	intense	intense	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	surprise	surprise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	disgust	disgust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	_
16	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj	_	_
17	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	18	expl	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
19	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	20	det	_	_
20	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
23	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	pond	pond	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
27	full	full	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	parataxis	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
29	mud	mud	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go down** | past | the elephant |  |  |  |  | to the pond; down *property* | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 2 | **find** | past | the elephant *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to elephant's intense surprise and disgust | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past | the pond |  |  |  |  | of mud; full *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **surprise** |  | elephant |  |  |  |  |  | nom surprise «feeling transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/13/17/)
- next →: [sentence 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/13/19/)
- ↑ back to [Xviii.--how the River Came Into Existence; Or, Why a Crab Has No Head.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/13/)