---
title: The porcupine agreed to go, providing Chief Eka gave him one slave a… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: The porcupine agreed to go, providing Chief Eka gave him one slave and 500 rods for his trouble. Who acts: porcupine, Chief. 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 pragmati
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inkum and Enfitop., sentence 160

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The porcupine agreed to go, providing Chief Eka gave him one slave and 500 rods for his trouble.

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**Who acts:** porcupine, Chief · **What happens:** agree, go, provide, give, trouble · **To what, where:** one slave, porcupine

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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 (porcupine, Chief), 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:pg70959:7:160
# text = The porcupine agreed to go, providing Chief Eka gave him one slave and 500 rods for his trouble.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	porcupine	porcupine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	agreed	agree	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
7	providing	provide	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	5	advcl	_	_
8	Chief	Chief	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
9	Eka	Eka	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	flat	_	_
10	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	ccomp	_	_
11	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	iobj	_	_
12	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	13	nummod	_	_
13	slave	slave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	500	500	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	16	nummod	_	_
16	rods	rod	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	conj	_	_
17	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
19	trouble	trouble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **agree** *speech: agree* | past | the porcupine |  |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **go** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the porcupine *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **provide** | gerund | the porcupine *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn ensure-99 «NP V that S»: agent=Precondition clause=Theme |
| 4 | **give** | past | Chief | one slave and 500 rods for porcupine's trouble | porcupine |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient slave=Theme |
| 5 | **trouble** |  | porcupine |  |  |  |  |  | nom trouble «cognition transitive»: poss=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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