---
title: Early in the morning all the frogs took up their positions along the… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: Early in the morning all the frogs took up their positions along the course, and the young frog jumped on to the course where the starting-place was and waited for the bush buck to arrive. Who acts: frogs, young frog, starting place. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphins
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/21/37/)

<!-- 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/pg70959/21/) / 37

# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 4, sentence 37

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Early in the morning all the frogs took up their positions along the course, and the young frog jumped on to the course where the starting-place was and waited for the bush buck to arrive.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** frogs, young frog, starting place · **What happens:** take up, jump on, be, arrive · **To what, where:** positions

<!-- .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 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (frogs, young frog, starting place), 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:pg70959:21:37
# text = Early in the morning all the frogs took up their positions along the course, and the young frog jumped on to the course where the starting-place was and waited for the bush buck to arrive.
1	Early	early	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	8	advmod	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	morning	morning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
5	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	7	det:predet	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	frogs	frog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
8	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	up	up	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	_
10	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	positions	position	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	_
12	along	along	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	frog	frog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	jumped	jump	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
21	on	on	ADP	RP	_	20	compound:prt	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	course	course	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	_
25	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	32	advmod	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
27	starting	starting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj	_	_
30	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	waited	wait	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
33	for	for	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
35	bush	bush	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	compound	_	_
36	buck	buck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	_
37	to	to	PART	TO	_	38	mark	_	_
38	arrive	arrive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take up** | past | all frogs | whole's positions |  |  |  | along the course; early *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent position=Theme |
| 2 | **jump on** | past | the young frog |  |  |  |  | to the course *result* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme to course=Result |
| 3 | **is** | past | the starting place |  |  |  |  | for the bush buck; wait *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **arrive** | to-infinitive | the starting place *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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 36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/21/36/)
- next →: [sentence 38](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/21/38/)
- ↑ back to [Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/21/)