---
title: When the spider had finished eating his dog, he put the skull of the… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: When the spider had finished eating his dog, he put the skull of the dog in his bag, and asked the grasshopper to go in front of him. Who acts: spider, chief. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Vii.--how Two Friends Fell Out: the Spider and the Grasshoppe
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/6/52/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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/) / [Vii.--how Two Friends Fell Out: the Sp…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/6/) / 52

# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Vii.--how Two Friends Fell Out: the Spider and the Grasshopper., sentence 52

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When the spider had finished eating his dog, he put the skull of the dog in his bag, and asked the grasshopper to go in front of him.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** spider, chief · **What happens:** finish, eat, put, ask, go · **To what, where:** dog, skull, bag, grasshopper, front

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (spider, chief), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg70959:6:52
# text = When the spider had finished eating his dog, he put the skull of the dog in his bag, and asked the grasshopper to go in front of him.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	5	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	spider	spider	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	finished	finish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
6	eating	eat	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	5	xcomp	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	put	put	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	skull	skull	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	bag	bag	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	grasshopper	grasshopper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obj	_	_
25	to	to	PART	TO	_	26	mark	_	_
26	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	xcomp	_	_
27	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	front	front	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obl	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **finish** | past · perfect | the spider |  |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **eat** | gerund | the spider *not said here* | chief's dog |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dog=Patient |
| 3 | **put** | past | chief | the skull of the dog |  | chief's bag |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent skull=Theme in bag=Destination |
| 4 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | chief *not said here* |  | the grasshopper |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S\_INF»: agent=Agent grasshopper=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **go** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | chief *not said here* |  |  | front of chief |  |  | vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in front=Location |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 51](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/6/51/)
- next →: [sentence 53](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/6/53/)
- ↑ back to [Vii.--how Two Friends Fell Out: the Spider and the Grasshopper.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/6/)