---
title: When Awu, the mother, heard about the fire, she knew at once that Ag… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: When Awu, the mother, heard about the fire, she knew at once that Agbor must be her son whom she had deserted and left to die in the forest. Who acts: Awu, Agbor. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, E. Dayrell., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics 
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, E. Dayrell., sentence 27

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When Awu, the mother, heard about the fire, she knew at once that Agbor must be her son whom she had deserted and left to die in the forest.

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**Who acts:** Awu, Agbor · **What happens:** hear, know, be, desert, leave, die · **To what, where:** son · **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 (Awu, Agbor), 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:pg70959:3:27
# text = When Awu, the mother, heard about the fire, she knew at once that Agbor must be her son whom she had deserted and left to die in the forest.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	7	advmod	_	_
2	Awu	Awu	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
7	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
8	about	about	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
12	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	at	at	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	13	obl	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
17	Agbor	Agbor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
18	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
19	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	cop	_	_
20	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	ccomp	_	_
22	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	25	obj	_	_
23	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
24	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	deserted	desert	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	21	acl:relcl	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	left	leave	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	25	conj	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	_
30	in	in	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	forest	forest	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | Awu |  |  |  |  | about the fire | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer about fire=Stimulus |
| 2 | **know** | past | Awu |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **is a** | must | Agbor | Awu's son |  |  |  | Awu *nmod:poss* | tree rules |
| 4 | **desert** | past · perfect | Awu | Awu's son |  |  |  |  | vn leave-51.2-1 «NP V NP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme whom=Source |
| 5 | **leave** | participle | Awu *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **die** | to-infinitive | Awu *not said here* |  |  |  |  | in the forest | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in forest=Attribute |

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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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