--- title: When the morning came, the tortoise called his wife to help him, and… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics description: When the morning came, the tortoise called his wife to help him, and together they put the meat and rubber into a basket with the hare on top, and carried them all to the king’s house. Who acts: morning, tortoise, feet. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/4/57/) [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/) / 57 # Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell., sentence 57 When the morning came, the tortoise called his wife to help him, and together they put the meat and rubber into a basket with the hare on top, and carried them all to the king’s house. **Who acts:** morning, tortoise, feet · **What happens:** come, call, help, put, carry · **To what, where:** wife, hare, meat, basket, feet, house · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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 (morning, tortoise, feet), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = book:pg70959:4:57 # text = When the morning came, the tortoise called his wife to help him, and together they put the meat and rubber into a basket with the hare on top, and carried them all to the king’s house. 1 When when SCONJ WRB _ 4 mark _ _ 2 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 3 det _ _ 3 morning morning NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 nsubj _ _ 4 came come VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 8 advcl _ SpaceAfter=No 5 , , PUNCT , _ 4 punct _ _ 6 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 7 det _ _ 7 tortoise tortoise NOUN NN Number=Sing 8 nsubj _ _ 8 called call 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 to to PART TO _ 12 mark _ _ 12 help help VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 8 advcl _ _ 13 him he PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 12 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 14 , , PUNCT , _ 18 punct _ _ 15 and and CCONJ CC _ 18 cc _ _ 16 together together ADV RB _ 18 advmod _ _ 17 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 18 nsubj _ _ 18 put put VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 8 conj _ _ 19 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 20 det _ _ 20 meat meat NOUN NN Number=Sing 18 obj _ _ 21 and and CCONJ CC _ 22 cc _ _ 22 rubber rubber NOUN NN Number=Sing 20 conj _ _ 23 into into ADP IN _ 25 case _ _ 24 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 25 det _ _ 25 basket basket NOUN NN Number=Sing 18 obl _ _ 26 with with ADP IN _ 28 case _ _ 27 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 28 det _ _ 28 hare hare NOUN NN Number=Sing 25 nmod _ _ 29 on on ADP IN _ 30 case _ _ 30 top top NOUN NN Number=Sing 28 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 31 , , PUNCT , _ 33 punct _ _ 32 and and CCONJ CC _ 33 cc _ _ 33 carried carry VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 8 conj _ _ 34 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 33 obj _ _ 35 all all DET DT PronType=Tot 34 nmod:unmarked _ _ 36 to to ADP IN _ 40 case _ _ 37 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 38 det _ _ 38 king king NOUN NN Number=Sing 40 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 39 ’s 's PART POS _ 38 case _ _ 40 house house NOUN NN Number=Sing 33 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 41 . . PUNCT . _ 8 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **come** | past | the morning | | | | | | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 2 | **call** | past | the tortoise | | hare's wife | | | | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent wife=Recipient | | 3 | **help** | to-infinitive | the tortoise *not said here* | | hare | | | | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Beneficiary | | 4 | **put** | past | feet *= foot* | the meat and rubber | | a basket with the hare on top | | together *property* | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent meat=Goal | | 5 | **carry** | past | the tortoise *not said here* | feet *= foot* | | the king's house | | | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent they=Theme to house=Destination | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 56](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/4/56/) - next →: [sentence 58](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/4/58/) - ↑ 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/)