---
title: At midday when the sun was high up, the witches came and started to… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: At midday when the sun was high up, the witches came and started to pick up the mangoes, but they left the cripple underneath the tree. Who acts: sun, witches. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water., with its dependenc
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water., sentence 23

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At midday when the sun was high up, the witches came and started to pick up the mangoes, but they left the cripple underneath the tree.

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**Who acts:** sun, witches · **What happens:** be, come, start, pick up, leave · **To what, where:** midday, mangoes, cripple, tree

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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 (sun, witches), 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:pg70959:14:23
# text = At midday when the sun was high up, the witches came and started to pick up the mangoes, but they left the cripple underneath the tree.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	midday	midday	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
3	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	high	high	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	amod	_	_
8	up	up	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	witches	witch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
12	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	started	start	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	pick	pick	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
17	up	up	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	mangoes	mango	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	cripple	cripple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	underneath	underneath	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the sun |  |  |  |  | high *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **come** | past | the witches |  |  | midday |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at midday=Location |
| 3 | **start** | past | the witches *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **pick up** | to-infinitive | the witches *not said here* | the mangoes |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mango=Topic |
| 5 | **leave** | past | witches *= witch* | the cripple |  | the tree |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent cripple=Theme underneath tree=Location |

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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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