---
title: He therefore determined that, when it became his turn to dry and gua… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: He therefore determined that, when it became his turn to dry and guard the meat, he would take every precaution possible, and would try to catch whoever it was who always removed the meat at night, as he had no intention that his body should supply food for the remaining six animals. Who acts: anima
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/4/42/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/) / [Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tor…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/4/) / 42

# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell., sentence 42

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He therefore determined that, when it became his turn to dry and guard the meat, he would take every precaution possible, and would try to catch whoever it was who always removed the meat at night, as he had no intention that his body should supply food for the remaining six animals.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** animal, meat, body · **What happens:** determine, become, dry, guard, take, try · **To what, where:** turn, meat, precaution, whoever, intention, food

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (animal, meat, body), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg70959:4:42
# text = He therefore determined that, when it became his turn to dry and guard the meat, he would take every precaution possible, and would try to catch whoever it was who always removed the meat at night, as he had no intention that his body should supply food for the remaining six animals.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	therefore	therefore	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	determined	determine	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	_
7	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	advcl	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	turn	turn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	xcomp	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	dry	dry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	acl	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	guard	guard	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	conj	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
21	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	22	det	_	_
22	precaution	precaution	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obj	_	_
23	possible	possible	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
26	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
27	try	try	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
28	to	to	PART	TO	_	29	mark	_	_
29	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	27	xcomp	_	_
30	whoever	whoever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	29	obj	_	_
31	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
32	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	35	cop	_	_
33	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	35	nsubj	_	_
34	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	35	advmod	_	_
35	removed	remove	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	acl:relcl	_	_
36	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
37	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obj	_	_
38	at	at	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
39	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
41	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	43	mark	_	_
42	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	43	nsubj	_	_
43	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	advcl	_	_
44	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	45	det	_	_
45	intention	intention	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	obj	_	_
46	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	50	mark	_	_
47	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	48	nmod:poss	_	_
48	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	nsubj	_	_
49	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	50	aux	_	_
50	supply	supply	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	45	acl	_	_
51	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	50	obj	_	_
52	for	for	ADP	IN	_	56	case	_	_
53	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	56	det	_	_
54	remaining	remain	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	56	amod	_	_
55	six	six	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	56	nummod	_	_
56	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	50	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
57	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **determine** | past | animal |  |  |  |  | therefore *property* | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 2 | **become** | past | meat | animal's turn |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **dry** | to-infinitive | meat *not said here* | animal's turn *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 4 | **guard** | infinitive | meat *not said here* | the meat |  |  |  |  | vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meat=Beneficiary |
| 5 | **take** | would | animal | every precaution |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent precaution=Theme |
| 6 | **try** | would | animal *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 7 | **catch** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | animal *not said here* | whoever |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent whoever=Theme |
| 8 | **is** | past | meat |  |  |  | night | who *nsubj*; always, remove *property* | tree rules |
| 9 | **have** | past | animal | no intention |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent intention=Patient |
| 10 | **supply** | should | animal's body | food |  |  |  | for the remaining six animals | vn fulfilling-13.4.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent food=Theme for animal=Recipient |
| 11 | **remain** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 41](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/4/41/)
- next →: [sentence 43](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/4/43/)
- ↑ back to [Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/4/)