---
title: The hare then asked his friend to step into his back room and allow… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: The hare then asked his friend to step into his back room and allow him to speak to his wife from the door when she came. 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., part 2, with its depen
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 2, sentence 63

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The hare then asked his friend to step into his back room and allow him to speak to his wife from the door when she came.

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**Who acts:** hare, wife · **What happens:** ask, step, allow, speak, come · **To what, where:** friend, back room, hare · **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 (hare, wife), 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:pg70959:19:63
# text = The hare then asked his friend to step into his back room and allow him to speak to his wife from the door when she came.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	hare	hare	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
4	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	step	step	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
9	into	into	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
11	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	compound	_	_
12	room	room	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	allow	allow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	iobj	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	speak	speak	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	xcomp	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
21	from	from	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nmod	_	_
24	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	26	advmod	_	_
25	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the hare |  | hare's friend |  | then |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S\_INF»: agent=Agent friend=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **step** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the hare *not said here* |  |  | hare's back room |  |  | vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into room=Destination |
| 3 | **allow** | infinitive | the hare *not said here* |  | hare |  |  |  | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: agent=Causer he=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **speak** *speech: other* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the hare *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to hare's wife from the door | vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to wife=Co-Agent |
| 5 | **come** | past | wife |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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