---
title: Up to the time the infant was one year old he never gave the mother… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: Up to the time the infant was one year old he never gave the mother or child a present, and when, as he grew up, the father saw his little son playing about the house he never called him to come to him or dashed him anything as he did to his other children. Who acts: infant, father, little son. A se
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/8/7/)

<!-- 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/) / [Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/8/) / 7

# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed., sentence 7

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Up to the time the infant was one year old he never gave the mother or child a present, and when, as he grew up, the father saw his little son playing about the house he never called him to come to him or dashed him anything as he did to his other children.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** infant, father, little son · **What happens:** be, not give, grow up, see, play, not call · **To what, where:** present, mother, little son, father · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (infant, father, little son), 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:pg70959:8:7
# text = Up to the time the infant was one year old he never gave the mother or child a present, and when, as he grew up, the father saw his little son playing about the house he never called him to come to him or dashed him anything as he did to his other children.
1	Up	up	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
2	to	to	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	infant	infant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
8	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	year	year	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl:unmarked	_	_
10	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	13	advmod	_	_
13	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	acl:relcl	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	present	present	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
22	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	26	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	26	punct	_	_
24	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
25	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
26	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	parataxis	_	_
27	up	up	ADP	RP	_	26	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	nsubj	_	_
31	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
32	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
33	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	obj	_	_
35	playing	play	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	31	xcomp	_	_
36	about	about	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
37	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
38	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	_
39	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	nsubj	_	_
40	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	41	advmod	_	_
41	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	38	acl:relcl	_	_
42	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	41	obj	_	_
43	to	to	PART	TO	_	44	mark	_	_
44	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	41	xcomp	_	_
45	to	to	ADP	IN	_	46	case	_	_
46	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	44	obl	_	_
47	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	48	cc	_	_
48	dashed	dash	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	conj	_	_
49	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	48	obj	_	_
50	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	48	obj	_	_
51	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	53	mark	_	_
52	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	53	nsubj	_	_
53	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	48	advcl	_	_
54	to	to	ADP	IN	_	57	case	_	_
55	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	57	nmod:poss	_	_
56	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	57	amod	_	_
57	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	53	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
58	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the infant |  |  |  | time; year | old *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **not** **give** | past | infant | a present | the mother or child |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent mother=Recipient present=Theme |
| 3 | **grow up** | past | infant |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **see** | past | the father | father's little son |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **play** | gerund | father's little son *not said here* |  |  |  |  | about the house | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **not** **call** | past | infant | father |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 7 | **come** | to-infinitive | infant *not said here* |  | father |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to he=Initial\_Location |
| 8 | **dash** | past | the father *not said here* | father |  |  |  | anything *obj* | vn hit-18.1 «NP V NP ADJP»: agent=Agent he=Patient anything=Result |
| 9 | **do** | past | infant |  |  |  |  | to infant's other children | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/8/6/)
- next →: [sentence 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/8/8/)
- ↑ back to [Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/8/)