---
title: They took great care of the little girl, never allowing her to go ab… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: They took great care of the little girl, never allowing her to go about by herself, and frequently warned her about the bad ju-ju who lived in the bush and eat people. Who acts: people, girl, bad ju ju, little girl. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xix.
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water., sentence 80

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They took great care of the little girl, never allowing her to go about by herself, and frequently warned her about the bad ju-ju who lived in the bush and eat people.

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**Who acts:** people, girl, bad ju ju, little girl · **What happens:** take, not allow, go about, warn, live, eat · **To what, where:** great care, girl, bush, people

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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 (people, girl, bad ju ju, little girl), 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:pg70959:14:80
# text = They took great care of the little girl, never allowing her to go about by herself, and frequently warned her about the bad ju-ju who lived in the bush and eat people.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	care	care	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	allowing	allow	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
12	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
15	about	about	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
16	by	by	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
20	frequently	frequently	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	warned	warn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
22	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	about	about	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
25	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
26	ju	ju	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	26	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	ju	ju	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	_
29	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	30	nsubj	_	_
30	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	acl:relcl	_	_
31	in	in	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	bush	bush	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
34	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
35	eat	eat	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	30	conj	_	_
36	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	35	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | people | great care of the little girl |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent care=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **allow** | gerund | people *not said here* | girl |  |  |  |  | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: agent=Causer she=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **go about** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | girl *not said here* |  |  |  |  | by girl; about *property* | vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **warn** *speech: warn* | past | people *not said here* |  | girl |  |  | about the bad ju ju; frequently *property* | vn advise-37.9-1 «NP V NP PP.topic»: agent=Agent she=Recipient about ju=Topic |
| 5 | **live** | past | the bad ju ju |  |  | the bush |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in bush=Location |
| 6 | **eat** | present | the bad ju ju *not said here* | people |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent people=Patient |
| 7 | **care** |  | the little girl |  |  |  |  |  | nom care «act intransitive»: of=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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