---
title: The hare then commenced to scream with pain, pretending to be in gre… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: The hare then commenced to scream with pain, pretending to be in great agony. Who acts: hare. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxii.--a Story of the Great Famine., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxii.--a Story of the Great Famine., sentence 54

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The hare then commenced to scream with pain, pretending to be in great agony.

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**Who acts:** hare · **What happens:** commence, scream, pretend, be · **To what, where:** great agony

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This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxii.--a Story of the Great Famine.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (hare), 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:pg70959:16:54
# text = The hare then commenced to scream with pain, pretending to be in great agony.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	hare	hare	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
4	commenced	commence	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	scream	scream	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	with	with	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	pain	pain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	pretending	pretend	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
12	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	cop	_	_
13	in	in	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	agony	agony	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **commence** | past | the hare |  |  |  | then |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **scream** *speech: express* | to-infinitive | the hare *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with pain | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with pain=Theme |
| 3 | **pretend** | gerund | the hare *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | to-infinitive | the hare *not said here* |  |  | great agony |  |  | tree rules |

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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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