---
title: Thomas, District Clerk, Inkom, told me this grave incident, and said… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: Thomas, District Clerk, Inkom, told me this grave incident, and said it happened in his presence some years ago at Calabar, when he was time-keeper in the P.W.D. Who acts: Thomas, it, Calabar. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Vii.--how Two Friends Fell 
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Vii.--how Two Friends Fell Out: the Spider and the Grasshopper., sentence 124

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Thomas, District Clerk, Inkom, told me this grave incident, and said it happened in his presence some years ago at Calabar, when he was time-keeper in the P.W.D.

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**Who acts:** Thomas, it, Calabar · **What happens:** tell, say, happen, be · **To what, where:** grave incident, me, presence, time keeper, P.W.D · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Vii.--how Two Friends Fell Out: the Spider and the Grasshopper.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Thomas, it, Calabar), 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:pg70959:6:125
# text = Thomas, District Clerk, Inkom, told me this grave incident, and said it happened in his presence some years ago at Calabar, when he was time-keeper in the P.W.D.
1	Thomas	Thomas	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
3	District	District	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	Clerk	Clerk	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	Inkom	Inkom	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
8	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	iobj	_	_
10	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	12	det	_	_
11	grave	grave	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	incident	incident	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	happened	happen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	ccomp	_	_
18	in	in	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	presence	presence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
21	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	22	det	_	_
22	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl:unmarked	_	_
23	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
24	at	at	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
25	Calabar	Calabar	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	32	punct	_	_
27	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	32	advmod	_	_
28	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
29	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	cop	_	_
30	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	30	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	keeper	keeper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	ccomp	_	_
33	in	in	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	P.W.D	P.W.D	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	32	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Thomas and District Clerk and Inkom | this grave incident | me |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent i=Recipient incident=Topic |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Thomas and District Clerk and Inkom *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **happen** | past | it |  |  | Inkom's presence |  | at Calabar; ago *property* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in presence=Location |
| 4 | **is a** | past | Calabar | time keeper |  | the P.W.D |  |  | tree rules |

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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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