---
title: They lived together for several years without having any children, m… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: They lived together for several years without having any children, much to their mutual grief. Who acts: IGIRI. 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 pragmatic
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell., sentence 83

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They lived together for several years without having any children, much to their mutual grief.

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**Who acts:** IGIRI · **What happens:** live together, have · **To what, where:** children

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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 (IGIRI), 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:pg70959:4:84
# text = They lived together for several years without having any children, much to their mutual grief.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	together	together	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	for	for	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	several	several	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
7	without	without	SCONJ	IN	_	8	mark	_	_
8	having	have	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
9	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	10	det	_	_
10	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	much	much	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
15	mutual	mutual	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	grief	grief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live together** | past | IGIRI |  |  |  | year | together *property* | vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **have** | gerund | IGIRI *not said here* | any children |  |  |  | to IGIRI's mutual grief | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Patient |

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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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