---
title: Told by Abassi, an Inkum boy.--[E.D.] — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: Told by Abassi, an Inkum boy.--[E.D.] 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 the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell., sentence 78

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Told by Abassi, an Inkum boy.--\[E.D.\]

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**What happens:** tell · **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: 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:pg70959:4:79
# text = Told by Abassi, an Inkum boy.--[E.D.]
1	Told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
2	by	by	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	Abassi	Abassi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	obl:agent	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	Inkum	Inkum	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	[	[	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	E.D	E.D	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	]	]	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | participle |  |  |  |  |  | Abassi *obl:agent* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=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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