---
title: The hawk, seeing what a fine child Agbor was, thought he would try t… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: The hawk, seeing what a fine child Agbor was, thought he would try to save his life, and immediately set about removing the ants from Agbor’s body. Who acts: hawk, fine child. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, E. Dayrell., with its dependency tree and th
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, E. Dayrell., sentence 17

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The hawk, seeing what a fine child Agbor was, thought he would try to save his life, and immediately set about removing the ants from Agbor’s body.

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**Who acts:** hawk, fine child · **What happens:** see, be, think, try, save, set · **To what, where:** hawk, life, ants, body · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (hawk, fine child), 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:pg70959:3:17
# text = The hawk, seeing what a fine child Agbor was, thought he would try to save his life, and immediately set about removing the ants from Agbor’s body.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	hawk	hawk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
4	seeing	see	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	2	acl	_	_
5	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	obj	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	fine	fine	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
9	Agbor	Agbor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	appos	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
12	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
14	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
15	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	ccomp	_	_
16	to	to	PART	TO	_	17	mark	_	_
17	save	save	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	xcomp	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
22	immediately	immediately	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	set	set	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	conj	_	_
24	about	about	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
25	removing	remove	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	23	advcl	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	ants	ant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obj	_	_
28	from	from	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
29	Agbor	Agbor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	31	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	’s	's	PART	POS	_	29	case	_	_
31	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | gerund | the hawk *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is a** | past | a fine child | the hawk |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | past | the hawk |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **try** | would | HAWK |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 5 | **save** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | HAWK *not said here* | HAWK's life |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Theme |
| 6 | **set** | infinitive | HAWK *not said here* |  |  |  |  | immediately *property* | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 7 | **remove** | gerund | HAWK *not said here* | the ants |  | Agbor's body |  |  | vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent ant=Theme from body=Source |

<!-- .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.

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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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