---
title: His servants, however, told him that Agbor was quite faithful to him… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: His servants, however, told him that Agbor was quite faithful to him, but he would not be convinced. Who acts: servants, Agbor. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed., with its dependency tree and th
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed., sentence 10

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His servants, however, told him that Agbor was quite faithful to him, but he would not be convinced.

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**Who acts:** servants, Agbor · **What happens:** tell, be, not be · **To what, where:** boy · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (servants, Agbor), 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:pg70959:8:10
# text = His servants, however, told him that Agbor was quite faithful to him, but he would not be convinced.
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	servants	servant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	however	however	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	iobj	_	_
8	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	Agbor	Agbor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
11	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	faithful	faithful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	ccomp	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
16	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	nsubj	_	_
18	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	21	aux	_	_
19	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	21	advmod	_	_
20	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	cop	_	_
21	convinced	convinced	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | boy's servants |  | boy |  |  | however *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 2 | **is** | past | Agbor |  | boy |  |  | faithful *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **is** | would | Agbor |  |  |  |  | convinced *property* | tree rules |

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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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