---
title: He told his brother to be brave and not to make a noise or tell anyo… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: He told his brother to be brave and not to make a noise or tell anyone until the calabash was broken. Who acts: Amoru. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xii.--concerning the Okuni Witches and Cannibalism., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xii.--concerning the Okuni Witches and Cannibalism., sentence 73

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He told his brother to be brave and not to make a noise or tell anyone until the calabash was broken.

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**Who acts:** Amoru · **What happens:** tell, be, not make, break · **To what, where:** brother, noise, anyone, calabash · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xii.--concerning the Okuni Witches and Cannibalism.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Amoru), 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:pg70959:9:73
# text = He told his brother to be brave and not to make a noise or tell anyone until the calabash was broken.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	iobj	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
6	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	cop	_	_
7	brave	brave	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	ccomp	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	noise	noise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	conj	_	_
16	anyone	anyone	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	15	obj	_	_
17	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	calabash	calabash	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj:pass	_	_
20	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	aux:pass	_	_
21	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	15	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	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 | Amoru |  | Amoru's brother |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent brother=Recipient |
| 2 | **is** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | brave *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **not** **make** | to-infinitive |  | a noise |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset noise=Product |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | infinitive |  |  | anyone |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent anyone=Recipient |
| 5 | **break** | past · passive |  | the calabash |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |

<!-- .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.

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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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