---
title: He then helped his mother up the tree, and left her sitting on a bra… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: He then helped his mother up the tree, and left her sitting on a branch, telling her that he would return the same way after he had finished hunting, late in the afternoon, and take her home. Who acts: man, mother. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xix.-
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/14/21/)

<!-- 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/) / [Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/14/) / 21

# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water., sentence 21

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He then helped his mother up the tree, and left her sitting on a branch, telling her that he would return the same way after he had finished hunting, late in the afternoon, and take her home.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** man, mother · **What happens:** help, leave, sit, tell, return, finish · **To what, where:** mother, branch, same way, hunting, home · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, mother), 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:pg70959:14:21
# text = He then helped his mother up the tree, and left her sitting on a branch, telling her that he would return the same way after he had finished hunting, late in the afternoon, and take her home.
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	helped	help	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	up	up	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
12	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	11	xcomp	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	branch	branch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	telling	tell	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	conj	_	_
19	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	iobj	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	23	mark	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	return	return	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
25	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
27	after	after	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
29	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	finished	finish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	23	advcl	_	_
31	hunting	hunting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
33	late	late	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	afternoon	afternoon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
39	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
40	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	41	nmod:poss	_	_
41	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **help** | past | man |  | man's mother |  | then | up the tree | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mother=Beneficiary |
| 2 | **leave** | past | man *not said here* | mother |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **sit** | gerund | mother *not said here* |  |  | a branch |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on branch=Location |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | gerund | mother *not said here* |  | mother |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **return** *not said to happen* | would | man | the same way |  |  |  |  | vn send-11.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Theme |
| 6 | **finish** | past · perfect | man | hunting |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector hunting=Eventuality |
| 7 | **take** | infinitive | man *not said here* | mother's home |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent home=Theme |

<!-- .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 20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/14/20/)
- next →: [sentence 22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/14/22/)
- ↑ back to [Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/14/)