---
title: Then the hare heard the tortoise murmur, “Yes, to-morrow I will disc… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the hare heard the tortoise murmur, “Yes, to-morrow I will discover that rat who is always stealing the king’s meat.” Who acts: hare, rubber, rat. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell., wi
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell., sentence 55

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Then the hare heard the tortoise murmur, “Yes, to-morrow I will discover that rat who is always stealing the king’s meat.”

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**Who acts:** hare, rubber, rat · **What happens:** hear, discover, be · **To what, where:** tortoise murmur, rat · **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 (hare, rubber, rat), 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:pg70959:4:55
# text = Then the hare heard the tortoise murmur, “Yes, to-morrow I will discover that rat who is always stealing the king’s meat.”
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	hare	hare	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	tortoise	tortoise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	murmur	murmur	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
9	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	17	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	morrow	morrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
15	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
16	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	discover	discover	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
18	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	19	det	_	_
19	rat	rat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
21	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	cop	_	_
22	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	23	advmod	_	_
23	stealing	steal	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	19	parataxis	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	’s	's	PART	POS	_	25	case	_	_
27	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | the hare | the tortoise murmur |  |  | then |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **discover** *in a quote* | future | rubber | that rat |  |  |  | to morrow | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rat=Topic |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | present | that rat |  |  |  |  | the king's meat *obj*; always, steal *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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