---
title: The crab then pinched him so severely that he burst and died, at whi… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: The crab then pinched him so severely that he burst and died, at which the hare was very glad. Who acts: crab, Elephantiasis, 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 a
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 2, sentence 33

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The crab then pinched him so severely that he burst and died, at which the hare was very glad.

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**Who acts:** crab, Elephantiasis, hare · **What happens:** pinch, burst, die, be · **To what, where:** Elephantiasis

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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, Elephantiasis, 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:pg70959:19:33
# text = The crab then pinched him so severely that he burst and died, at which the hare was very glad.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	crab	crab	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
4	pinched	pinch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	so	so	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	severely	severely	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
8	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	burst	burst	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	20	obl	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	hare	hare	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
19	very	very	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	glad	glad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pinch** | past | the crab | Elephantiasis |  |  | then | severely *property* | vn steal-10.5 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 2 | **burst** | past | Elephantiasis |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **die** | past | Elephantiasis *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 4 | **is** | past | the hare |  |  |  |  | which *obl*; glad *property* | 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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