---
title: The goat then put his yam on the ground and pretended to go away as… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: The goat then put his yam on the ground and pretended to go away as if he had forgotten all about the yam, but he did not go far, and watched to see what might happen. Who acts: goat, play. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxi.--why the Head of the Male
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/15/27/)

<!-- 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/) / [Xxi.--why the Head of the Male Goat Sm…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/15/) / 27

# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxi.--why the Head of the Male Goat Smells So Strong., sentence 27

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The goat then put his yam on the ground and pretended to go away as if he had forgotten all about the yam, but he did not go far, and watched to see what might happen.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** goat, play · **What happens:** put, pretend, go away, forget, not go, watch · **To what, where:** yam, ground · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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, play), 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:pg70959:15:27
# text = The goat then put his yam on the ground and pretended to go away as if he had forgotten all about the yam, but he did not go far, and watched to see what might happen.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	goat	goat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
4	put	put	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	yam	yam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	on	on	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	pretended	pretend	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
14	away	away	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
16	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	forgotten	forget	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
20	all	all	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
21	about	about	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	yam	yam	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
25	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
27	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
28	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	29	advmod	_	_
29	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
30	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	29	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
33	watched	watch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
34	to	to	PART	TO	_	35	mark	_	_
35	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	33	xcomp	_	_
36	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	38	nsubj	_	_
37	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	38	aux	_	_
38	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **put** | past | the goat | play's yam |  | the ground | then |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent yam=Theme on ground=Destination |
| 2 | **pretend** | past | the goat *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **go away** | to-infinitive | the goat *not said here* |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **forget** | past · perfect | play |  |  |  |  | about the yam | tree rules |
| 5 | **not** **go** | past · do-support | play |  |  |  |  | far *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 6 | **watch** | past | the goat *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **see** | to-infinitive | the goat *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 8 | **happen** | might |  |  |  |  |  | what *nsubj* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=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 26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/15/26/)
- next →: [sentence 28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/15/28/)
- ↑ back to [Xxi.--why the Head of the Male Goat Smells So Strong.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/15/)