---
title: The Umbaji people exchanging salt and _house rats_ (which form an ar… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: The Umbaji people exchanging salt and _house rats_ (which form an article of diet for the Bassankwala people, who are cannibals) for palm oil and yams. Who acts: Umbaji people, Bassankwala people. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Opening, with its depen
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 113

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The Umbaji people exchanging salt and \_house rats\_ (which form an article of diet for the Bassankwala people, who are cannibals) for palm oil and yams.

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**Who acts:** Umbaji people, Bassankwala people · **What happens:** exchange, form, be, article · **To what, where:** salt, article, cannibals, Umbaji people, diet

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This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Opening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Umbaji people, Bassankwala people), 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:pg70959:1:113
# text = The Umbaji people exchanging salt and _house rats_ (which form an article of diet for the Bassankwala people, who are cannibals) for palm oil and yams.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	Umbaji	Umbaji	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
4	exchanging	exchange	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	3	acl	_	_
5	salt	salt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
7	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	rats	rat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	13	punct	_	_
11	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	13	nsubj	_	_
13	form	form	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
14	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	article	article	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	diet	diet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
18	for	for	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	Bassankwala	Bassankwala	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	_
21	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	25	nsubj	_	_
24	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	25	cop	_	_
25	cannibals	cannibal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	21	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	25	punct	_	_
27	for	for	ADP	IN	_	29	case	_	_
28	palm	palm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	compound	_	_
29	oil	oil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
31	yams	yam	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **exchange** | gerund | the Umbaji people *not said here* | salt and house rats |  |  |  |  | vn exchange-13.6.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent salt=Theme |
| 2 | **form** | present |  | a article of diet |  |  |  | for the Bassankwala people; for palm oil and yams; which *nsubj* | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent article=Result for people=Beneficiary |
| 3 | **is a** | present | the Bassankwala people | cannibals |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **article** |  |  | diet |  |  |  | for the Bassankwala people; for palm oil and yams | nom article «communication transitive»: of=patient for=obl for=obl |

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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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