---
title: When it was quite dead, mushrooms began to grow on the trunk. — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: When it was quite dead, mushrooms began to grow on the trunk. Who acts: goat, dead mushrooms. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxi.--why the Head of the Male Goat Smells So Strong., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxi.--why the Head of the Male Goat Smells So Strong., sentence 2

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When it was quite dead, mushrooms began to grow on the trunk.

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**Who acts:** goat, dead mushrooms · **What happens:** be, begin, grow · **To what, where:** trunk

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This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxi.--why the Head of the Male Goat Smells So Strong.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (goat, dead mushrooms), 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:pg70959:15:2
# text = When it was quite dead, mushrooms began to grow on the trunk.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
2	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
4	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	mushrooms	mushroom	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
8	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	grow	grow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	trunk	trunk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | goat |  |  |  |  | dead *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **begin** | past | dead mushrooms |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **grow** | to-infinitive | dead mushrooms *not said here* |  |  | the trunk |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on trunk=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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