---
title: All day long the bush cow wandered about trying to find the hawk, bu… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: All day long the bush cow wandered about trying to find the hawk, but without success, and when the evening came he was quite tired and went home and reported his bad luck to the antelope. Who acts: bush cow, evening, king. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayre
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxx.--the Game of Hide-and-seek As Played By the Hawk and the Bush Cow., sentence 13

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All day long the bush cow wandered about trying to find the hawk, but without success, and when the evening came he was quite tired and went home and reported his bad luck to the antelope.

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**Who acts:** bush cow, evening, king · **What happens:** wander, try, find, come, be, go · **To what, where:** hawk, bad luck, antelope

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This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxx.--the Game of Hide-and-seek As Played By the Hawk and the Bush Cow.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (bush cow, evening, king), 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:pg70959:23:13
# text = All day long the bush cow wandered about trying to find the hawk, but without success, and when the evening came he was quite tired and went home and reported his bad luck to the antelope.
1	All	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	2	det	_	_
2	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	7	advmod	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	bush	bush	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	wandered	wander	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	about	about	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
9	trying	try	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	xcomp	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	hawk	hawk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	without	without	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	success	success	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
20	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	23	mark	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	advcl	_	_
24	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
25	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	cop	_	_
26	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	tired	tired	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	ccomp	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
29	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
30	home	home	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	reported	report	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	conj	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	35	nmod:poss	_	_
34	bad	bad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	35	amod	_	_
35	luck	luck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	_
36	to	to	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	antelope	antelope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wander** | past | the bush cow |  |  |  |  | without success; long *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **try** | gerund | the bush cow *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **find** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the bush cow *not said here* | the hawk |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hawk=Topic |
| 4 | **come** | past | the evening |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **is** | past | king |  |  |  |  | tired *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **go** | past |  |  |  |  |  | home *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **report** | past |  | king's bad luck | the antelope |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent luck=Topic to antelope=Recipient |

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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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