---
title: They cleared all the bush and planted his yams and plantains. — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: They cleared all the bush and planted his yams and plantains. Who acts: animals. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxix.--why a Python Never Swallows a Tortoise., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxix.--why a Python Never Swallows a Tortoise., sentence 2

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They cleared all the bush and planted his yams and plantains.

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**Who acts:** animals · **What happens:** clear, plant · **To what, where:** bush, yams

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This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxix.--why a Python Never Swallows a Tortoise.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (animals), 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:pg70959:22:2
# text = They cleared all the bush and planted his yams and plantains.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	cleared	clear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	5	det:predet	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	bush	bush	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	planted	plant	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
8	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	yams	yam	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	plantains	plantain	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **clear** | past | animals *= animal* | all bush |  |  |  |  | vn clear-10.3-1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent bush=Source |
| 2 | **plant** | past | animals *= animal* *not said here* | king's yams and plantains |  |  |  |  | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent yam=Patient |

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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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