---
title: He was very frightened at this, and went to the meeting trembling in… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: He was very frightened at this, and went to the meeting trembling in every limb. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell., sentence 27

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He was very frightened at this, and went to the meeting trembling in every limb.

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**What happens:** be, go, tremble · **To what, where:** Keroho, this, meeting, limb

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This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg70959:4:27
# text = He was very frightened at this, and went to the meeting trembling in every limb.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	very	very	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	frightened	frightened	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	meeting	meeting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
13	trembling	tremble	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	16	det	_	_
16	limb	limb	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past · passive |  | Keroho |  | this |  | frightened *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **go** | past |  |  |  | the meeting |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to meeting=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **tremble** | gerund |  |  |  | every limb |  |  | vn modes\_of\_being\_with\_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in limb=Location |

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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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