---
title: That night the bush cow slept very soundly, and at midnight, when no… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: That night the bush cow slept very soundly, and at midnight, when nothing could be heard but the occasional hoot of an owl or the croaking of the frogs in the marsh, the hare went very quietly and stole the meat from the bush cow’s fire and took it home with him, as before. Who acts: bush cow, owl, 
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell., sentence 33

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That night the bush cow slept very soundly, and at midnight, when nothing could be heard but the occasional hoot of an owl or the croaking of the frogs in the marsh, the hare went very quietly and stole the meat from the bush cow’s fire and took it home with him, as before.

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**Who acts:** bush cow, owl, frogs · **What happens:** sleep, hear, go, steal, take, hoot · **To what, where:** nothing, meat, fire

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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 (bush cow, owl, frogs), 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:pg70959:4:33
# text = That night the bush cow slept very soundly, and at midnight, when nothing could be heard but the occasional hoot of an owl or the croaking of the frogs in the marsh, the hare went very quietly and stole the meat from the bush cow’s fire and took it home with him, as before.
1	That	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	det	_	_
2	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl:unmarked	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	bush	bush	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	slept	sleep	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	very	very	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
8	soundly	soundly	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	38	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	38	cc	_	_
11	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	midnight	midnight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	18	advmod	_	_
15	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
17	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	aux:pass	_	_
18	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	acl:relcl	_	_
19	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	occasional	occasional	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	hoot	hoot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	conj	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	owl	owl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
26	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	croaking	croaking	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	frogs	frog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	nmod	_	_
32	in	in	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	marsh	marsh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	hare	hare	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	_
38	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	_
39	very	very	ADV	RB	_	40	advmod	_	_
40	quietly	quietly	ADV	RB	_	38	advmod	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
42	stole	steal	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	conj	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obj	_	_
45	from	from	ADP	IN	_	50	case	_	_
46	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	48	det	_	_
47	bush	bush	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	compound	_	_
48	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
49	’s	's	PART	POS	_	48	case	_	_
50	fire	fire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obl	_	_
51	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	52	cc	_	_
52	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	conj	_	_
53	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	52	obj	_	_
54	home	home	ADV	RB	_	52	advmod	_	_
55	with	with	ADP	IN	_	56	case	_	_
56	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	52	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	59	punct	_	_
58	as	as	ADP	IN	_	59	case	_	_
59	before	before	ADV	RB	_	52	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
60	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sleep** | past | the bush cow |  |  |  | night | soundly *property* | vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **hear** | could · passive |  | nothing |  |  |  | the occasional hoot of a owl or the croaking of the frogs in the marsh and the hare *conj* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: subject=Stimulus |
| 3 | **go** | past |  |  |  |  | midnight | quietly *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **steal** | past |  | the meat |  | the bush cow's fire |  |  | vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent meat=Theme from fire=Source |
| 5 | **take** | past |  | meat |  |  |  | with hare; before, home *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 6 | **hoot** |  | a owl |  |  |  |  |  | nom hoot «communication intransitive»: of=agent |
| 7 | **croak** |  | the frogs in the marsh |  |  |  |  |  | nom croaking «communication intransitive»: of=agent |
| 8 | **fire** |  | the bush cow |  |  |  |  |  | nom fire «event transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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