---
title: The dogs did not answer, but picked up their loads and carried them… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: The dogs did not answer, but picked up their loads and carried them to the house. Who acts: dogs. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Iv.--how Elili of Inkum Died, and Was Brought Back to Life Again., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every cl
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Iv.--how Elili of Inkum Died, and Was Brought Back to Life Again., sentence 89

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The dogs did not answer, but picked up their loads and carried them to the house.

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**Who acts:** dogs · **What happens:** not answer, pick up, carry · **To what, where:** loads, house

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This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Iv.--how Elili of Inkum Died, and Was Brought Back to Life Again.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dogs), 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:pg70959:5:89
# text = The dogs did not answer, but picked up their loads and carried them to the house.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	dogs	dog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
3	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
4	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
5	answer	answer	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	picked	pick	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	parataxis	_	_
9	up	up	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	_
10	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	loads	load	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	carried	carry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
14	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **answer** *speech: assert* | past · do-support | the dogs |  |  |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **pick up** | participle |  | DOGS's loads |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent load=Topic |
| 3 | **carry** | past |  | loads *= load* |  | the house |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent they=Theme to house=Destination |

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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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