---
title: When he returned in the evening, he cut up the meat, saying as he di… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: When he returned in the evening, he cut up the meat, saying as he did so: “Ah, there goes another poor animal. Who acts: animal. 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 44

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When he returned in the evening, he cut up the meat, saying as he did so: “Ah, there goes another poor animal.

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**Who acts:** animal · **What happens:** return, cut up, say, do, go · **To what, where:** meat, poor animal · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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), 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:pg70959:4:44
# text = When he returned in the evening, he cut up the meat, saying as he did so: “Ah, there goes another poor animal.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	returned	return	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
4	in	in	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	cut	cut	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	up	up	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
14	saying	say	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
15	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	ccomp	_	_
18	so	so	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	24	punct	_	_
20	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	Ah	ah	INTJ	UH	_	24	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
23	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	24	expl	_	_
24	goes	go	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
25	another	another	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	27	det	_	_
26	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	animal	animal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **return** | past | animal |  |  |  | evening |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **cut up** | past | animal | the meat |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meat=Product |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | animal *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **do** | past | animal |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **go** *in a quote* | present | animal *not said here* | another poor animal |  | there |  |  | vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location animal=Theme |

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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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