---
title: He looked upon the sinking of the canoe as a bad omen and a warning… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: He looked upon the sinking of the canoe as a bad omen and a warning to him not to go that day. Who acts: Ode, canoe. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxiii.--why Edidor Killed Her Husband and Her Lover., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxiii.--why Edidor Killed Her Husband and Her Lover., sentence 12

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He looked upon the sinking of the canoe as a bad omen and a warning to him not to go that day.

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**Who acts:** Ode, canoe · **What happens:** look, not go, sink

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This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxiii.--why Edidor Killed Her Husband and Her Lover.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Ode, canoe), 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:pg70959:17:12
# text = He looked upon the sinking of the canoe as a bad omen and a warning to him not to go that day.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	sinking	sinking	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	canoe	canoe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
9	as	as	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	omen	omen	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	warning	warning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	conj	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nmod	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	20	advmod	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	go	go	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
21	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	22	det	_	_
22	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** | past | Ode |  |  |  |  | upon the sinking of the canoe; as a bad omen and a warning to Inkum | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent upon sinking=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **go** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  | day |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **sink** |  | the canoe |  |  |  |  |  | nom sinking «event 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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