---
title: A day was appointed for the races to be held, and a long straight co… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: A day was appointed for the races to be held, and a long straight course was cut. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 4, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 4, sentence 19

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A day was appointed for the races to be held, and a long straight course was cut.

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**What happens:** appoint, hold, cut · **To what, where:** long straight course

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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 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg70959:21:19
# text = A day was appointed for the races to be held, and a long straight course was cut.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	appointed	appoint	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	races	race	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
9	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	held	hold	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
14	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
15	straight	straight	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux:pass	_	_
18	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **appoint** | past · passive |  |  |  |  | day | for the races | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP» |
| 2 | **hold** | to-infinitive · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V» |
| 3 | **cut** | past · passive |  | a long straight course |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |

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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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