---
title: The bush cow then asked them again, but they continued to laugh. — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: The bush cow then asked them again, but they continued to laugh. Who acts: bush cow, hawks. 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., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

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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 29

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The bush cow then asked them again, but they continued to laugh.

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**Who acts:** bush cow, hawks · **What happens:** ask, continue, laugh · **To what, where:** hawks

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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, hawks), 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:pg70959:23:29
# text = The bush cow then asked them again, but they continued to laugh.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	bush	bush	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	5	advmod	_	_
5	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	obj	_	_
7	again	again	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	continued	continue	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	parataxis	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	13	mark	_	_
13	laugh	laugh	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | the bush cow |  | hawks *= hawk* |  | then; again |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent they=Recipient |
| 2 | **continue** | past | hawks *= hawk* |  |  |  |  |  | vn continue-55.3 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **laugh** | to-infinitive | hawks *= hawk* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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