---
title: He was quite prepared, fortunately, and ran off home at once and tol… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: He was quite prepared, fortunately, and ran off home at once and told his father what had happened. Who acts: son. 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 
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed., sentence 51

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He was quite prepared, fortunately, and ran off home at once and told his father what had happened.

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**Who acts:** son · **What happens:** be, run off, tell, happen · **To what, where:** father · **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 (son), 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:pg70959:8:51
# text = He was quite prepared, fortunately, and ran off home at once and told his father what had happened.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	prepared	prepared	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	fortunately	fortunately	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
10	off	off	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	_
11	home	home	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
12	at	at	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	9	obl	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
16	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	iobj	_	_
18	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	20	nsubj	_	_
19	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	happened	happen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	15	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | son |  |  |  |  | fortunately, prepared *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **run off** | past |  |  |  |  |  | home *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at once=Trajectory |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past |  |  | son's father |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent father=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **happen** | past · perfect |  |  |  |  |  | what *nsubj* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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