---
title: And that is why pythons do not eat tortoises now. — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: And that is why pythons do not eat tortoises now. Who acts: that, pythons. 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 28

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And that is why pythons do not eat tortoises now.

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**Who acts:** that, pythons · **What happens:** be, not eat · **To what, where:** tortoises

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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 (that, pythons), 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:pg70959:22:28
# text = And that is why pythons do not eat tortoises now.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
2	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	nsubj	_	_
3	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	0	root	_	_
5	pythons	python	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	nsubj	_	_
6	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	8	advmod	_	_
8	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	acl:relcl	_	_
9	tortoises	tortoise	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	_
10	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | that |  |  |  |  | why *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **eat** | present · do-support | pythons | tortoises |  |  | now |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tortoise=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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