---
title: The crab replied, “Yes, the hare is in my house, but I never give st… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: The crab replied, “Yes, the hare is in my house, but I never give strangers up to their enemies.” Who acts: crab, hare. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragm
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 2, sentence 24

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The crab replied, “Yes, the hare is in my house, but I never give strangers up to their enemies.”

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**Who acts:** crab, hare · **What happens:** reply, be, not give up · **To what, where:** house, strangers · **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 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (crab, 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:pg70959:19:24
# text = The crab replied, “Yes, the hare is in my house, but I never give strangers up to their enemies.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	crab	crab	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	13	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	hare	hare	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
10	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
18	give	give	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
19	strangers	stranger	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	iobj	_	_
20	up	up	ADP	RP	_	18	compound:prt	_	_
21	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	enemies	enemy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | the crab |  |  |  |  |  | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | present | the hare |  |  | my house |  | my *nmod:poss* | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **give up** *in a quote* | present | the crab *= crab* |  | strangers |  |  | to strangers's enemies | vn contribute-13.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent stranger=Theme to enemy=Recipient |

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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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