---
title: And they answered all together, with one croak, “Yes.” — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: And they answered all together, with one croak, “Yes.” Who acts: companions. 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 29

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And they answered all together, with one croak, “Yes.”

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**Who acts:** companions · **What happens:** answer

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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: who acts (companions), 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:pg70959:21:29
# text = And they answered all together, with one croak, “Yes.”
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	all	all	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	together	together	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
7	with	with	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	croak	croak	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	9	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | companions *= companion* |  |  |  |  | one croak *parataxis*; together *property* | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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