---
title: His wife then packed up her things and went off to their friend’s ho… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: His wife then packed up her things and went off to their friend’s house, and the hare having said that he would probably be absent for some days, ran off in another direction, leaving his home deserted, so that when the Elephantiasis arrived he found no one about the place. Who acts: wife, hare, ELE
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 1, sentence 68

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His wife then packed up her things and went off to their friend’s house, and the hare having said that he would probably be absent for some days, ran off in another direction, leaving his home deserted, so that when the Elephantiasis arrived he found no one about the place.

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**Who acts:** wife, hare, ELEPHANTIASIS, home · **What happens:** pack up, go off, have, say, be, run off · **To what, where:** things, direction, one · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (wife, hare, ELEPHANTIASIS, home), 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:pg70959:18:68
# text = His wife then packed up her things and went off to their friend’s house, and the hare having said that he would probably be absent for some days, ran off in another direction, leaving his home deserted, so that when the Elephantiasis arrived he found no one about the place.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
4	packed	pack	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	up	up	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
6	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
10	off	off	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	_
11	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
12	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	’s	's	PART	POS	_	13	case	_	_
15	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	hare	hare	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
20	having	have	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	acl	_	_
21	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
22	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	27	mark	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
24	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
25	probably	probably	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
26	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	cop	_	_
27	absent	absent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	ccomp	_	_
28	for	for	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	30	det	_	_
30	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
32	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
33	off	off	ADP	RP	_	32	compound:prt	_	_
34	in	in	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	36	det	_	_
36	direction	direction	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
38	leaving	leave	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	32	advcl	_	_
39	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	40	nmod:poss	_	_
40	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	nsubj	_	_
41	deserted	desert	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	_
43	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	48	mark	_	_
44	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	43	fixed	_	_
45	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	48	mark	_	_
46	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	47	det	_	_
47	Elephantiasis	Elephantiasis	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	48	nsubj	_	_
48	arrived	arrive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	parataxis	_	_
49	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	50	nsubj	_	_
50	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	48	conj	_	_
51	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	52	det	_	_
52	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	obj	_	_
53	about	about	ADP	IN	_	55	case	_	_
54	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	55	det	_	_
55	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	52	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pack up** | past | ELEPHANTIASIS's wife | wife's things |  |  | then |  | vn spray-9.7-1-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent thing=Theme |
| 2 | **go off** | past | ELEPHANTIASIS's wife *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to HARES's friend's house | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **have** | gerund | the hare *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the hare |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **is** | would | ELEPHANTIASIS |  |  |  | day | absent, probably *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **run off** | past | ELEPHANTIASIS's wife *not said here* |  |  | another direction |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in direction=Trajectory |
| 7 | **leave** | gerund | ELEPHANTIASIS's wife *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 8 | **desert** | past | ELEPHANTIASIS's home |  |  |  |  |  | vn leave-51.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 9 | **arrive** | past | the Elephantiasis |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 10 | **find** | past | ELEPHANTIASIS | no one |  |  |  | about the place | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Topic |

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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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