---
title: Upon the bush cat saying “No,” the hare ordered him to go there at o… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: Upon the bush cat saying “No,” the hare ordered him to go there at once. Who acts: bush cat, hare. 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 cl
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell., sentence 9

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Upon the bush cat saying “No,” the hare ordered him to go there at once.

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**Who acts:** bush cat, hare · **What happens:** say, order, go · **To what, where:** cat · **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 (bush cat, hare), 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:pg70959:4:9
# text = Upon the bush cat saying “No,” the hare ordered him to go there at once.
1	Upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	bush	bush	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	cat	cat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
5	saying	say	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	4	acl	_	_
6	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	No	no	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Neg	5	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	hare	hare	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	ordered	order	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
16	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	15	advmod	_	_
17	at	at	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | gerund | the bush cat *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **order** | past | the hare |  | cat |  |  | upon the bush cat | vn order-58.3-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **go** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the hare *not said here* |  |  | there |  |  | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme at once=Location |

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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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