---
title: Very soon after Awu had departed, the driver ants discovered Agbor a… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: Very soon after Awu had departed, the driver ants discovered Agbor and quickly covered him, commencing to eat him. Who acts: Awu, driver ants. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, E. Dayrell., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, E. Dayrell., sentence 14

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Very soon after Awu had departed, the driver ants discovered Agbor and quickly covered him, commencing to eat him.

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**Who acts:** Awu, driver ants · **What happens:** depart, discover, cover, commence, eat · **To what, where:** Agbor

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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 (Awu, driver ants), 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:pg70959:3:14
# text = Very soon after Awu had departed, the driver ants discovered Agbor and quickly covered him, commencing to eat him.
1	Very	very	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	11	advmod	_	_
3	after	after	SCONJ	IN	_	6	mark	_	_
4	Awu	Awu	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	departed	depart	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	driver	driver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	ants	ant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj	_	_
11	discovered	discover	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	Agbor	Agbor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	quickly	quickly	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	covered	cover	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
16	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
18	commencing	commence	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	xcomp	_	_
21	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **depart** | past · perfect | Awu |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **discover** | past | the driver ants | Agbor |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent agbor=Topic |
| 3 | **cover** | past | the driver ants *not said here* |  | Agbor |  |  | quickly *property* | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme he=Destination |
| 4 | **commence** | gerund | the driver ants *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **eat** | to-infinitive | the driver ants *not said here* | Agbor |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient |

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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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