---
title: He then told his friend that his wife had left him because he had lo… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: He then told his friend that his wife had left him because he had lost part of his tail, and was on her way to see whether he had also lost his. Who acts: hare, wife. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins.,
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/19/62/)

<!-- 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/) / 62

# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 2, sentence 62

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He then told his friend that his wife had left him because he had lost part of his tail, and was on her way to see whether he had also lost his.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** hare, wife · **What happens:** tell, leave, lose, be, see · **To what, where:** friend, hare, part, way · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (hare, wife), 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:pg70959:19:62
# text = He then told his friend that his wife had left him because he had lost part of his tail, and was on her way to see whether he had also lost his.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
3	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	iobj	_	_
6	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
9	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	ccomp	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	iobj	_	_
12	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	lost	lose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
16	part	part	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
22	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
23	on	on	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	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	ccomp	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	see	see	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	acl	_	_
28	whether	whether	SCONJ	IN	_	32	mark	_	_
29	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
30	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux	_	_
31	also	also	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
32	lost	lose	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	27	ccomp	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | hare |  | hare's friend |  | then |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent friend=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **leave** | past · perfect | hare's wife |  | hare |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 3 | **lose** | past · perfect | hare | part of hare's tail |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent part=Eventuality |
| 4 | **is** | past |  |  |  | wife's way |  | wife *nmod:poss* | tree rules |
| 5 | **see** | to-infinitive | hare *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 6 | **lose** | past · perfect | hare | friend |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent his=Eventuality |

<!-- .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 61](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/19/61/)
- next →: [sentence 63](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/19/63/)
- ↑ back to [Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/19/)