---
title: Before going into the bush, he gave his wife strict injunctions not… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: Before going into the bush, he gave his wife strict injunctions not to let the meat out of her sight. Who acts: animal, wife. 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
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell., sentence 43

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Before going into the bush, he gave his wife strict injunctions not to let the meat out of her sight.

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**Who acts:** animal, wife · **What happens:** go, give, not let, sight · **To what, where:** bush, strict injunctions, wife, meat, sight

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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 (animal, wife), 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:pg70959:4:43
# text = Before going into the bush, he gave his wife strict injunctions not to let the meat out of her sight.
1	Before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	advcl	_	_
3	into	into	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	bush	bush	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	strict	strict	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	injunctions	injunction	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	_
13	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	let	let	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obj	_	_
18	out	out	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	sight	sight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | gerund | animal *not said here* |  |  | the bush |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme into bush=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **give** | past | animal | strict injunctions | animal's wife |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent wife=Recipient injunction=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **let** | to-infinitive | animal *not said here* | the meat |  | wife's sight |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meat=Theme |
| 4 | **sight** |  | wife |  |  |  |  |  | nom sight «cognition 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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