---
title: Yesterday I caught you breaking the chief’s hunting law by eating fi… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: Yesterday I caught you breaking the chief’s hunting law by eating fish, and now I find you running away from the hunting party.” Who acts: I, you. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 2, with
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 2, sentence 61

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Yesterday I caught you breaking the chief’s hunting law by eating fish, and now I find you running away from the hunting party.”

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**Who acts:** I, you · **What happens:** catch, break, eat, find, run away · **To what, where:** you, hunting law, fish, hunting party

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This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (I, you), 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:pg70959:25:61
# text = Yesterday I caught you breaking the chief’s hunting law by eating fish, and now I find you running away from the hunting party.”
1	Yesterday	yesterday	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl:unmarked	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	breaking	break	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	xcomp	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	’s	's	PART	POS	_	7	case	_	_
9	hunting	hunting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	law	law	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
11	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
12	eating	eat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
13	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	18	advmod	_	_
17	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	find	find	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
19	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	18	obj	_	_
20	running	run	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	18	xcomp	_	_
21	away	away	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
22	from	from	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	hunting	hunting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	compound	_	_
25	party	party	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **catch** | past | I | you |  |  | yesterday |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **break** | gerund | I *not said here* | the chief's hunting law |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer law=Patient |
| 3 | **eat** | gerund | I *not said here* | fish |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fish=Patient |
| 4 | **find** | present | I | you |  |  | now |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent you=Attribute clause=Theme |
| 5 | **run away** | gerund | you *not said here* |  |  | the hunting party |  | away *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from party=Trajectory |

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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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