---
title: When Tawn had embraced his future son-in-law, he ordered a cow to be… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: When Tawn had embraced his future son-in-law, he ordered a cow to be killed to welcome him. Who acts: Tawn. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Vii.--how Two Friends Fell Out: the Spider and the Grasshopper., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Vii.--how Two Friends Fell Out: the Spider and the Grasshopper., sentence 16

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When Tawn had embraced his future son-in-law, he ordered a cow to be killed to welcome him.

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**Who acts:** Tawn · **What happens:** embrace, order, kill, welcome · **To what, where:** future son, law, cow, Tawn

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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 (Tawn), 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:pg70959:6:16
# text = When Tawn had embraced his future son-in-law, he ordered a cow to be killed to welcome him.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	Tawn	Tawn	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	embraced	embrace	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
6	future	future	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	law	law	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
13	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	ordered	order	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
18	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	aux:pass	_	_
19	killed	kill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	acl	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	welcome	welcome	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **embrace** | past · perfect | Tawn | Tawn's future son |  | law |  |  | vn marry-36.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Co-Agent |
| 2 | **order** | past | Tawn |  | a cow |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cow=Theme |
| 3 | **kill** | to-infinitive · passive | Tawn *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle» |
| 4 | **welcome** | to-infinitive | Tawn *not said here* | Tawn |  |  |  |  | vn admit-64.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |

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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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