---
title: The cripple begged them not to put him in the fire, but no one answe… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: The cripple begged them not to put him in the fire, but no one answered him. Who acts: cripple, one. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water., sentence 64

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The cripple begged them not to put him in the fire, but no one answered him.

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**Who acts:** cripple, one · **What happens:** beg, not put, answer · **To what, where:** people, cripple, fire

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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 (cripple, one), 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:pg70959:14:64
# text = The cripple begged them not to put him in the fire, but no one answered him.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	cripple	cripple	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	begged	beg	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
8	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	15	det	_	_
15	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **beg** *speech: request* | past | the cripple |  | people |  |  |  | vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.Topic»: agent=Agent they=Recipient |
| 2 | **not** **put** | to-infinitive | the cripple *not said here* | cripple |  | the fire |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent he=Theme in fire=Destination |
| 3 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | no one |  | cripple |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent he=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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