---
title: When they reached the town, the spider told the people that the gras… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: When they reached the town, the spider told the people that the grasshopper’s dog had chased one of the chief’s cows and bitten it very badly. Who acts: spider. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Vii.--how Two Friends Fell Out: the Spider and the Grasshop
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Vii.--how Two Friends Fell Out: the Spider and the Grasshopper., sentence 58

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When they reached the town, the spider told the people that the grasshopper’s dog had chased one of the chief’s cows and bitten it very badly.

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**Who acts:** spider · **What happens:** reach, tell, chase, bite · **To what, where:** town, people, dog · **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 (spider), 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:pg70959:6:58
# text = When they reached the town, the spider told the people that the grasshopper’s dog had chased one of the chief’s cows and bitten it very badly.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	3	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	spider	spider	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	iobj	_	_
12	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	grasshopper	grasshopper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	’s	's	PART	POS	_	14	case	_	_
16	dog	dog	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
17	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux	_	_
18	chased	chase	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	ccomp	_	_
19	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	18	obj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	’s	's	PART	POS	_	22	case	_	_
24	cows	cow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nmod	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
26	bitten	bite	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	conj	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	obj	_	_
28	very	very	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	badly	badly	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reach** | past | spider | the town |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent town=Theme |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the spider |  | the people |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent people=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **chase** | past · perfect · passive |  | the grasshopper's dog |  |  |  | one of the chief's cows *obj* | tree rules |
| 4 | **bite** | participle |  | dog |  |  |  | badly *property* | vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |

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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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