---
title: The porcupine told her that, if she did this, directly the hawk hear… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: The porcupine told her that, if she did this, directly the hawk heard that she was dead he would send Agbor to his dead mother’s side to mourn for her. Who acts: porcupine, Awu, hawk. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, E. Dayrell., with its dependency tre
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, E. Dayrell., sentence 33

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The porcupine told her that, if she did this, directly the hawk heard that she was dead he would send Agbor to his dead mother’s side to mourn for her.

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**Who acts:** porcupine, Awu, hawk · **What happens:** tell, do, hear, be, send, mourn · **To what, where:** Awu, this, Agbor, side · **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 (porcupine, Awu, hawk), 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:pg70959:3:33
# text = The porcupine told her that, if she did this, directly the hawk heard that she was dead he would send Agbor to his dead mother’s side to mourn for her.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	porcupine	porcupine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	iobj	_	_
5	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
7	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
8	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
10	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	directly	directly	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	hawk	hawk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
19	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	advcl	_	_
20	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
21	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	send	send	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
23	Agbor	Agbor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
24	to	to	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
26	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	’s	's	PART	POS	_	27	case	_	_
29	side	side	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	mourn	mourn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	advcl	_	_
32	for	for	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the porcupine |  | Awu |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent she=Recipient |
| 2 | **do** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | Awu | this |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent this=Eventuality |
| 3 | **hear** | past | the hawk |  |  |  |  | directly *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **is** | past | Awu |  |  |  |  | dead *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **send** | would | porcupine | Agbor |  | porcupine's dead mother's side |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent agbor=Theme to side=Destination |
| 6 | **mourn** | to-infinitive | porcupine *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for Awu | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer for she=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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