---
title: In those days there were no rivers but the Creator made a pond for t… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: In those days there were no rivers but the Creator made a pond for the elephant to drink out of. Who acts: rivers, Creator. 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., with its dependency tree
---

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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 2

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In those days there were no rivers but the Creator made a pond for the elephant to drink out of.

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**Who acts:** rivers, Creator · **What happens:** be, make, drink out · **To what, where:** pond

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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 (rivers, Creator), 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:pg70959:13:2
# text = In those days there were no rivers but the Creator made a pond for the elephant to drink out of.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	those	that	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
4	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	5	expl	_	_
5	were	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	7	det	_	_
7	rivers	river	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	Creator	Creator	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	pond	pond	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	for	for	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	drink	drink	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
19	out	out	ADP	IN	_	18	advmod	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	fixed	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | no rivers |  |  | there | day |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **make** | past | the Creator | a pond |  |  |  | for the elephant | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent pond=Product for elephant=Beneficiary |
| 3 | **drink out** | to-infinitive | the Creator *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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