---
title: He would then smell the hunters while they were watching him, and ru… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: He would then smell the hunters while they were watching him, and run away before they could kill him. Who acts: king, hunters. 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
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/23/5/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/) / [Xxx.--the Game of Hide-and-seek As Pla…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/23/) / 5

# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxx.--the Game of Hide-and-seek As Played By the Hawk and the Bush Cow., sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He would then smell the hunters while they were watching him, and run away before they could kill him.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** king, hunters · **What happens:** smell, watch, run away, kill · **To what, where:** hunters, king

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (king, hunters), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg70959:23:5
# text = He would then smell the hunters while they were watching him, and run away before they could kill him.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
4	smell	smell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	hunters	hunter	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
7	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	watching	watch	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	run	run	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
15	away	away	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
16	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	_
20	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **smell** | would | king | the hunters |  |  | then |  | vn see-30.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer hunter=Stimulus |
| 2 | **watch** | past · progressive | hunters *= hunter* | king |  |  |  |  | vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 3 | **run away** | infinitive | king *not said here* |  |  |  |  | away *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **kill** | could | hunters *= hunter* | king |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/23/4/)
- next →: [sentence 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/23/6/)
- ↑ back to [Xxx.--the Game of Hide-and-seek As Played By the Hawk and the Bush Cow.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/23/)