---
title: If you will give me the palm nuts I will allow you to eat all the ot… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: If you will give me the palm nuts I will allow you to eat all the other animals except our king the elephant.” Who acts: you, I. 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
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxix.--why a Python Never Swallows a Tortoise., sentence 20

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If you will give me the palm nuts I will allow you to eat all the other animals except our king the elephant.”

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**Who acts:** you, I · **What happens:** give, allow, eat · **To what, where:** palm nuts, me, you, other animals

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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 (you, I), 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:pg70959:22:20
# text = If you will give me the palm nuts I will allow you to eat all the other animals except our king the elephant.”
1	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
5	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	iobj	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	palm	palm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	nuts	nut	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	allow	allow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
12	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	11	iobj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
15	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	18	det:predet	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	obj	_	_
19	except	except	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	elephant	elephant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** *a condition, not said to happen* | future | you | the palm nuts | me |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient nut=Theme |
| 2 | **allow** | future | I |  | you |  |  |  | vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: agent=Causer you=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **eat** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | I *not said here* | all other animals |  |  |  | except our king; the elephant *obj* | tree rules |

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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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