---
title: While she was thus engaged a branch fell from a tree and hit her on… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: While she was thus engaged a branch fell from a tree and hit her on the belly, this immediately brought on her confinement, and she gave birth to twins in the forest. Who acts: branch, Awu. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, E. Dayrell., with its dependen
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, E. Dayrell., sentence 10

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While she was thus engaged a branch fell from a tree and hit her on the belly, this immediately brought on her confinement, and she gave birth to twins in the forest.

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**Who acts:** branch, Awu · **What happens:** engage, fall, hit, bring, give, confine · **To what, where:** Awu, tree, this, confinement, birth, twins

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This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, E. Dayrell.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (branch, Awu), 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:pg70959:3:10
# text = While she was thus engaged a branch fell from a tree and hit her on the belly, this immediately brought on her confinement, and she gave birth to twins in the forest.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
4	thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	engaged	engage	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	branch	branch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	ccomp	_	_
9	from	from	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	hit	hit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
14	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	on	on	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	belly	belly	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
19	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
20	immediately	immediately	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
21	brought	bring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	parataxis	_	_
22	on	on	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	confinement	confinement	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
29	birth	birth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
30	to	to	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
31	twins	twin	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	_
32	in	in	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **engage** | past · passive |  | Awu |  |  |  | thus *property* | vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP to be NP»: subject=Theme clause=Attribute |
| 2 | **fall** | past | a branch |  |  | a tree |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from tree=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **hit** | past | a branch *not said here* | Awu |  |  |  | on the belly | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent she=Instrument on belly=Patient |
| 4 | **bring** | participle · passive |  | this |  | Awu's confinement |  | immediately *property* | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme on confinement=Destination |
| 5 | **give** | past | Awu | birth | twins | the forest |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent birth=Theme to twin=Recipient |
| 6 | **confine** |  | Awu |  |  |  |  |  | nom confinement «state transitive»: poss=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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