---
title: Ever since that day dogs never speak or do anything for their master… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: Ever since that day dogs never speak or do anything for their masters, although they can understand quite well. Who acts: day dogs, 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 depend
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Iv.--how Elili of Inkum Died, and Was Brought Back to Life Again., sentence 94

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Ever since that day dogs never speak or do anything for their masters, although they can understand quite well.

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**Who acts:** day dogs, DOGS · **What happens:** not speak, do, understand · **To what, where:** anything · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (day dogs, 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:pg70959:5:94
# text = Ever since that day dogs never speak or do anything for their masters, although they can understand quite well.
1	Ever	ever	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	7	advmod	_	_
2	since	since	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
3	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	4	det	_	_
4	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	dogs	dog	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
6	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	7	advmod	_	_
7	speak	speak	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
10	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	9	obj	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	masters	master	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	although	although	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	understand	understand	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
19	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	18	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **speak** *speech: other* | present | day dogs |  |  |  | ever |  | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **do** | present | day dogs *not said here* | anything |  |  |  | for DOGS's masters | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Eventuality |
| 3 | **understand** | can | DOGS *= dog* |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |

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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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