---
title: He then went off 50 paces into the bush and gave the signal to start. — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: He then went off 50 paces into the bush and gave the signal to start. Who acts: 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 the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed., sentence 28

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He then went off 50 paces into the bush and gave the signal to start.

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**Who acts:** Agbor · **What happens:** go off, give, start · **To what, where:** 50 paces, bush, signal

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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 (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:pg70959:8:28
# text = He then went off 50 paces into the bush and gave the signal to start.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
3	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	off	off	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	50	50	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	6	nummod	_	_
6	paces	pace	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
7	into	into	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	bush	bush	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	signal	signal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	start	start	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go off** | past | Agbor | 50 paces |  | the bush | then |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **give** | past | Agbor *not said here* | the signal |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent signal=Theme |
| 3 | **start** | to-infinitive | Agbor *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |

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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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