---
title: They had then left him to drown, but the water ju-ju, being kind-hea… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: They had then left him to drown, but the water ju-ju, being kind-hearted, had saved him. Who acts: people, water. 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
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/7/141/)

<!-- 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/) / [Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inku…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/7/) / 141

# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inkum and Enfitop., sentence 141

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They had then left him to drown, but the water ju-ju, being kind-hearted, had saved him.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** people, water · **What happens:** have, leave, drown, ju, be, save · **To what, where:** porcupine

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (people, water), 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:pg70959:7:141
# text = They had then left him to drown, but the water ju-ju, being kind-hearted, had saved him.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
4	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	drown	drown	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
12	ju	ju	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	ju	ju	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	17	cop	_	_
17	kind	kind	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	hearted	hearted	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
21	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	saved	save	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	conj	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | people |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **leave** | past | people *not said here* | porcupine |  |  | then |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 3 | **drown** | to-infinitive | people *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **ju** |  | the water |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **is** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  | kind *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **be** |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **save** | past · perfect | people *not said here* | porcupine |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |

<!-- .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 140](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/7/140/)
- next →: [sentence 142](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/7/142/)
- ↑ back to [Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inkum and Enfitop.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/7/)