---
title: While the meat was cooking the crab went to get some salt, and to he… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: While the meat was cooking the crab went to get some salt, and to her horror saw the shells of three of her children on the ground where the hare had thrown them. Who acts: meat. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed T
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/19/40/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/) / [Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Change…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/19/) / 40

# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 2, sentence 40

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
While the meat was cooking the crab went to get some salt, and to her horror saw the shells of three of her children on the ground where the hare had thrown them.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** meat · **What happens:** cook, go, get, see, throw · **To what, where:** crab, salt, shells, hare

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (meat), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg70959:19:40
# text = While the meat was cooking the crab went to get some salt, and to her horror saw the shells of three of her children on the ground where the hare had thrown them.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	cooking	cook	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	crab	crab	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
11	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	12	det	_	_
12	salt	salt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	horror	horror	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
18	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	shells	shell	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	_
21	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nmod	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nmod	_	_
26	on	on	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nmod	_	_
29	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	33	advmod	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	hare	hare	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj:pass	_	_
32	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux	_	_
33	thrown	throw	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	28	acl:relcl	_	_
34	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cook** | past · progressive | the meat | the crab |  |  |  |  | vn cooking-45.3 «NP.instrument V NP»: agent=Instrument crab=Patient |
| 2 | **go** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **get** | to-infinitive |  | some salt |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer salt=Stimulus |
| 4 | **see** | past |  | the shells of three of crab's children on the ground |  |  |  | to crab's horror | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer shell=Stimulus |
| 5 | **throw** | past · perfect · passive |  | the hare |  |  |  | shells *= shell* *obj* | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Destination they=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 39](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/19/39/)
- next →: [sentence 41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/19/41/)
- ↑ back to [Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/19/)