---
title: It did not take long, however, to discover that he had taken refuge… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: It did not take long, however, to discover that he had taken refuge in the cotton tree, so they all went there and found the rope hanging down. Who acts: It, hare, people, rope. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortois
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/4/67/)

<!-- 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/) / 67

# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell., sentence 67

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
It did not take long, however, to discover that he had taken refuge in the cotton tree, so they all went there and found the rope hanging down.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** It, hare, people, rope · **What happens:** not take, discover, take, go, find, hang down · **To what, where:** refuge, cotton tree, rope

<!-- .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 (It, hare, people, rope), 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:pg70959:4:67
# text = It did not take long, however, to discover that he had taken refuge in the cotton tree, so they all went there and found the rope hanging down.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	however	however	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	discover	discover	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
11	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	taken	take	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	10	ccomp	_	_
15	refuge	refuge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	cotton	cotton	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	_
19	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	so	so	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
22	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	24	advmod	_	_
24	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
25	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	24	advmod	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	conj	_	_
28	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	29	det	_	_
29	rope	rope	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
30	hanging	hang	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	29	acl	_	_
31	down	down	ADV	RB	_	30	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **take** | past · do-support | It |  |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **discover** | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | however *property* | vn discover-84-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **take** | past · perfect | hare | refuge |  | the cotton tree |  |  | vn fit-54.3 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent refuge=Value in tree=Location |
| 4 | **go** | past | people |  |  | there |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **find** | past | people *not said here* | the rope |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rope=Topic |
| 6 | **hang down** | gerund | the rope *not said here* |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 66](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/4/66/)
- next →: [sentence 68](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/4/68/)
- ↑ 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/)