---
title: His debtors, who were looking everywhere for him, could not find him… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: His debtors, who were looking everywhere for him, could not find him, and thought he must have run away, but two days later his dead body was discovered hanging to the tree. Who acts: debtors, Eyu. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxv.--how Two Bendega 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/21/7/)

<!-- 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/) / 7

# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 4, sentence 7

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
His debtors, who were looking everywhere for him, could not find him, and thought he must have run away, but two days later his dead body was discovered hanging to the tree.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** debtors, Eyu · **What happens:** look, not find, think, run away, discover, hang · **To what, where:** Eyu, dead body · **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 4. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (debtors, Eyu), 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:pg70959:21:7
# text = His debtors, who were looking everywhere for him, could not find him, and thought he must have run away, but two days later his dead body was discovered hanging to the tree.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	debtors	debtor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	6	nsubj	_	_
5	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	looking	look	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	acl	_	_
7	everywhere	everywhere	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	6	advmod	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
11	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
12	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
19	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
20	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	aux	_	_
21	run	run	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	17	ccomp	_	_
22	away	away	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
24	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
25	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	26	nummod	_	_
26	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obl:unmarked	_	_
27	later	late	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	32	advmod	_	_
28	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
29	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	30	amod	_	_
30	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	nsubj:pass	_	_
31	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	aux:pass	_	_
32	discovered	discover	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	conj	_	_
33	hanging	hang	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	32	xcomp	_	_
34	to	to	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **look** | past · progressive | Eyu's debtors |  |  |  |  | for Eyu; everywhere *property* | vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent for he=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **find** | could | Eyu's debtors | Eyu |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Topic |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **run away** | must · perfect | Eyu |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **discover** | past · passive |  | Eyu's dead body |  |  |  | late *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **hang** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | to the tree | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/21/6/)
- next →: [sentence 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/21/8/)
- ↑ back to [Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/21/)