---
title: When the girl baby had become six years old, Ewa Abagi dressed herse… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: When the girl baby had become six years old, Ewa Abagi dressed herself and her daughter up in their best clothes, and crossed over the river to Okuni with the slave woman Mossim carrying her load. Who acts: girl baby, Ewa, slave woman. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphi
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Vii.--how Two Friends Fell Out: the Spider and the Grasshopper., sentence 75

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When the girl baby had become six years old, Ewa Abagi dressed herself and her daughter up in their best clothes, and crossed over the river to Okuni with the slave woman Mossim carrying her load.

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**Who acts:** girl baby, Ewa, slave woman · **What happens:** become, dress up, cross, carry · **To what, where:** EWA, best clothes, Okuni, river, load

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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 (girl baby, Ewa, slave woman), 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:pg70959:6:75
# text = When the girl baby had become six years old, Ewa Abagi dressed herself and her daughter up in their best clothes, and crossed over the river to Okuni with the slave woman Mossim carrying her load.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	6	mark	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	baby	baby	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux	_	_
6	become	become	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	13	advcl	_	_
7	six	six	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
8	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obl:unmarked	_	_
9	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
11	Ewa	Ewa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
12	Abagi	Abagi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	flat	_	_
13	dressed	dress	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	13	obj	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
16	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	conj	_	_
18	up	up	ADP	RP	_	13	compound:prt	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
21	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	22	amod	_	_
22	clothes	clothes	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
25	crossed	cross	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	conj	_	_
26	over	over	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
29	to	to	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	Okuni	Okuni	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
31	with	with	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	slave	slave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	34	compound	_	_
34	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl	_	_
35	Mossim	Mossim	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	34	appos	_	_
36	carrying	carry	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	34	acl	_	_
37	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	38	nmod:poss	_	_
38	load	load	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	36	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
39	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **become** | past · perfect | the girl baby |  |  |  |  | old *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **dress up** | past | Ewa | EWA |  | MEN's best clothes |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent herself=Patient |
| 3 | **cross** | participle | Ewa *not said here* |  | Okuni | the river |  | with the slave woman | vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V PP.initial\_location PP.destination»: agent=Theme over river=Initial\_Location to okuni=Destination |
| 4 | **carry** | gerund | the slave woman *not said here* | EWA's load |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent load=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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