---
title: Omegha then asked the porcupine to help her, which he promised to do. — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: Omegha then asked the porcupine to help her, which he promised to do. Who acts: Omegha, porcupine. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inkum and Enfitop., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inkum and Enfitop., sentence 127

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Omegha then asked the porcupine to help her, which he promised to do.

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**Who acts:** Omegha, porcupine · **What happens:** ask, help, promise, do · **To what, where:** porcupine, Omegha

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This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inkum and Enfitop.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Omegha, porcupine), 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:pg70959:7:127
# text = Omegha then asked the porcupine to help her, which he promised to do.
1	Omegha	Omegha	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
3	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	porcupine	porcupine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
8	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	12	obj	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	promised	promise	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | Omegha |  | the porcupine |  | then |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S\_INF»: agent=Agent porcupine=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **help** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Omegha *not said here* |  | Omegha |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Beneficiary |
| 3 | **promise** *speech: promise* | past | porcupine |  |  |  |  | which *obj* | vn promise-37.13 «NP V NP that S»: agent=Agent which=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **do** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | porcupine *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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