---
title: The spider then told each man and woman to say before they started t… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: The spider then told each man and woman to say before they started to cross the river, “If I stole Chief Okim’s goat, let the rope break with me when I get to the middle; but if I am not a thief, let me cross over in safety.” Who acts: spider, men. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nige
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/26/47/)

<!-- 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/) / [Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/26/) / 47

# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 3, sentence 47

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The spider then told each man and woman to say before they started to cross the river, “If I stole Chief Okim’s goat, let the rope break with me when I get to the middle; but if I am not a thief, let me cross over in safety.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** spider, men · **What happens:** tell, say, start, cross, steal, let · **To what, where:** man, river, goat, rope break, thief, spider · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (spider, men), 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:pg70959:26:47
# text = The spider then told each man and woman to say before they started to cross the river, “If I stole Chief Okim’s goat, let the rope break with me when I get to the middle; but if I am not a thief, let me cross over in safety.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	spider	spider	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
4	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	6	det	_	_
6	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	conj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
11	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
12	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	started	start	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	ccomp	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	cross	cross	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
19	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	28	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	stole	steal	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	advcl	_	_
23	Chief	Chief	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	nmod:poss	_	_
24	Okim	Okim	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	23	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	’s	's	PART	POS	_	23	case	_	_
26	goat	goat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
28	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
30	rope	rope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	compound	_	_
31	break	break	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
32	with	with	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	28	obl	_	_
34	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	36	advmod	_	_
35	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	36	nsubj	_	_
36	get	get	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	advcl	_	_
37	to	to	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	49	punct	_	_
41	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	49	cc	_	_
42	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	47	mark	_	_
43	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	47	nsubj	_	_
44	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	47	cop	_	_
45	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	47	advmod	_	_
46	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	47	det	_	_
47	thief	thief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	49	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	47	punct	_	_
49	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
50	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	49	obj	_	_
51	cross	cross	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	49	xcomp	_	_
52	over	over	ADV	RB	_	51	advmod	_	_
53	in	in	ADP	IN	_	54	case	_	_
54	safety	safety	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	51	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	49	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	49	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the spider |  | each man and woman |  | then |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S»: agent=Agent man=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **start** | past | men *= man* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **cross** | to-infinitive | men *= man* *not said here* | the river |  |  |  |  | vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent river=Patient |
| 5 | **steal** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | past | the spider *= spider* | Chief's goat |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location goat=Theme |
| 6 | **let** *in a quote* | infinitive | men *= man* *not said here* | the rope break |  |  |  | with the spider *= spider* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent break=Theme |
| 7 | **get** *in a quote* | present | the spider *= spider* |  |  |  |  | to the middle *result* | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to middle=Result |
| 8 | **not** **is a** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | present | the spider *= spider* | a thief |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 9 | **let** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | the spider *= spider* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 10 | **cross over** *in a quote* | infinitive | the spider *= spider* *not said here* |  |  | safety |  | over *property* | vn contiguous\_location-47.8-1 «NP V»: agent=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 46](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/26/46/)
- next →: [sentence 48](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/26/48/)
- ↑ back to [Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/26/)