---
title: The hare was careful to drink only a little himself, and very soon t… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: The hare was careful to drink only a little himself, and very soon the bush cow had finished the whole calabash. Who acts: hare. 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 
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell., sentence 32

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The hare was careful to drink only a little himself, and very soon the bush cow had finished the whole calabash.

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**Who acts:** hare · **What happens:** be, drink, finish · **To what, where:** little, bush cow

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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: who acts (hare), 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:pg70959:4:32
# text = The hare was careful to drink only a little himself, and very soon the bush cow had finished the whole calabash.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	hare	hare	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	careful	careful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	drink	drink	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	only	only	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	obj	_	_
10	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
13	very	very	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
14	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	19	advmod	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	bush	bush	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
17	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	finished	finish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	advcl	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	whole	whole	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	calabash	calabash	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	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 | the hare |  |  |  |  | careful *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **drink** | to-infinitive | the hare *not said here* | a little  hare |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent little=Patient |
| 3 | **finish** | past · perfect · passive |  | the bush cow |  |  |  | the whole calabash *obj*; soon *property* | tree rules |

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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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