---
title: I saved the boy’s life and have brought him up and fed him. — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: I saved the boy’s life and have brought him up and fed him. Who acts: I. 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 42

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I saved the boy’s life and have brought him up and fed him.

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**Who acts:** I · **What happens:** save, bring up, feed · **To what, where:** life, boy

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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 (I), 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:pg70959:3:42
# text = I saved the boy’s life and have brought him up and fed him.
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	saved	save	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	’s	's	PART	POS	_	4	case	_	_
6	life	life	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	brought	bring	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	up	up	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	fed	feed	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **save** | past | I | the boy's life |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Theme |
| 2 | **bring up** | present · perfect | I *not said here* | boy |  |  |  |  | vn remedy-45.7 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent he=Patient |
| 3 | **feed** | past | I *not said here* |  | boy |  |  |  | vn feeding-39.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |

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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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