---
title: When we get to the town, you must not tell anyone that I am not your… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: When we get to the town, you must not tell anyone that I am not your mother, or I will punish you severely.” Who acts: we, you, I. 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
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Vii.--how Two Friends Fell Out: the Spider and the Grasshopper., sentence 83

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When we get to the town, you must not tell anyone that I am not your mother, or I will punish you severely.”

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**Who acts:** we, you, I · **What happens:** get, not tell, not be, punish · **To what, where:** anyone, mother, you · **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 (we, you, I), 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:pg70959:6:83
# text = When we get to the town, you must not tell anyone that I am not your mother, or I will punish you severely.”
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	get	get	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
8	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
9	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
12	anyone	anyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	11	obj	_	_
13	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj	_	_
14	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
15	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	18	advmod	_	_
17	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	punish	punish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	_
24	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	severely	severely	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **get** | present | we |  |  |  |  | to the town *result* | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to town=Result |
| 2 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | must | you |  | anyone |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent anyone=Recipient |
| 3 | **not** **is a** | present |  | your mother |  |  |  | I *nsubj*; your *nmod:poss* | tree rules |
| 4 | **punish** | future | I | you |  |  |  | severely *property* | vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent you=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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