--- title: Then they opened the basket together, and, to the chief’s intense su… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics description: Then they opened the basket together, and, to the chief’s intense surprise and joy, he saw a fat little baby boy lying smiling in the bottom of the basket, half covered with mushrooms. Who acts: sacrifices, husband, fat little baby boy, chief. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/4/98/) [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/) / 98 # Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell., sentence 98 Then they opened the basket together, and, to the chief’s intense surprise and joy, he saw a fat little baby boy lying smiling in the bottom of the basket, half covered with mushrooms. **Who acts:** sacrifices, husband, fat little baby boy, chief · **What happens:** open, see, lie, smile, cover, surprise · **To what, where:** basket, fat little baby boy 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 (sacrifices, husband, fat little baby boy, chief), 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:pg70959:4:99 # text = Then they opened the basket together, and, to the chief’s intense surprise and joy, he saw a fat little baby boy lying smiling in the bottom of the basket, half covered with mushrooms. 1 Then then ADV RB PronType=Dem 3 advmod _ _ 2 they they PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 3 nsubj _ _ 3 opened open VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 4 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 5 det _ _ 5 basket basket NOUN NN Number=Sing 3 obj _ _ 6 together together ADV RB _ 3 advmod _ SpaceAfter=No 7 , , PUNCT , _ 20 punct _ _ 8 and and CCONJ CC _ 20 cc _ SpaceAfter=No 9 , , PUNCT , _ 8 punct _ _ 10 to to ADP IN _ 15 case _ _ 11 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 12 det _ _ 12 chief chief NOUN NN Number=Sing 15 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 13 ’s 's PART POS _ 12 case _ _ 14 intense intense ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 15 amod _ _ 15 surprise surprise NOUN NN Number=Sing 20 obl _ _ 16 and and CCONJ CC _ 17 cc _ _ 17 joy joy NOUN NN Number=Sing 15 conj _ SpaceAfter=No 18 , , PUNCT , _ 15 punct _ _ 19 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 20 nsubj _ _ 20 saw see VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 3 parataxis _ _ 21 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 25 det _ _ 22 fat fat ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 25 amod _ _ 23 little little ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 25 amod _ _ 24 baby baby NOUN NN Number=Sing 25 compound _ _ 25 boy boy NOUN NN Number=Sing 20 obj _ _ 26 lying lie VERB VBG VerbForm=Ger 25 acl _ _ 27 smiling smile VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 26 advcl _ _ 28 in in ADP IN _ 30 case _ _ 29 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 30 det _ _ 30 bottom bottom NOUN NN Number=Sing 27 obl _ _ 31 of of ADP IN _ 33 case _ _ 32 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 33 det _ _ 33 basket basket NOUN NN Number=Sing 30 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 34 , , PUNCT , _ 36 punct _ _ 35 half half ADV RB NumForm=Word|NumType=Frac 36 advmod _ _ 36 covered cover VERB VBN Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass 20 conj _ _ 37 with with ADP IN _ 38 case _ _ 38 mushrooms mushroom NOUN NNS Number=Plur 36 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 39 . . PUNCT . _ 3 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **open** | past | sacrifices *= sacrifice* | the basket | | | then | together *property* | vn spatial\_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location basket=Theme | | 2 | **see** | past | husband | a fat little baby boy | | | | to the chief's intense surprise and joy | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer boy=Stimulus | | 3 | **lie** | gerund | a fat little baby boy *not said here* | | | | | | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent | | 4 | **smile** | gerund | a fat little baby boy *not said here* | | | | | in the bottom of the basket | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent in bottom=Theme | | 5 | **cover** | participle | husband *not said here* | | | | | with mushrooms; half *property* | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent with mushroom=Theme | | 6 | **surprise** | | the chief | | | | | | nom surprise «feeling transitive»: poss=agent | 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 97](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/4/97/) - next →: [sentence 99](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/4/99/) - ↑ 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/)