---
title: The Bassankwala people admitted to the author that they ate human be… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: The Bassankwala people admitted to the author that they ate human beings, and had always done so, but they asserted vehemently that they did not eat their own dead--these they passed on to the next town, who sent them theirs in exchange. Who acts: Bassankwala people, people, these, next town. A sent
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 114

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The Bassankwala people admitted to the author that they ate human beings, and had always done so, but they asserted vehemently that they did not eat their own dead--these they passed on to the next town, who sent them theirs in exchange.

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**Who acts:** Bassankwala people, people, these, next town · **What happens:** admit, eat, do, assert, not eat, pass on · **To what, where:** author, human beings, own dead, next town, people, exchange

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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 (Bassankwala people, people, these, next town), 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:pg70959:1:114
# text = The Bassankwala people admitted to the author that they ate human beings, and had always done so, but they asserted vehemently that they did not eat their own dead--these they passed on to the next town, who sent them theirs in exchange.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	Bassankwala	Bassankwala	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	_
3	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	admitted	admit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	author	author	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
8	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	10	mark	_	_
9	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	ate	eat	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
11	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	beings	being	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	17	advmod	_	_
17	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	conj	_	_
18	so	so	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
22	asserted	assert	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
23	vehemently	vehemently	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	_
24	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
25	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
26	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
27	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	28	advmod	_	_
28	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	22	advcl	_	_
29	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
30	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	--	--	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	these	this	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	35	nsubj	_	_
34	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
35	passed	pass	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
36	on	on	ADP	RP	_	35	compound:prt	_	_
37	to	to	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
39	next	next	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	40	amod	_	_
40	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	43	punct	_	_
42	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	43	nsubj	_	_
43	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	40	acl:relcl	_	_
44	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	43	obj	_	_
45	theirs	their	PRON	PRP	Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	43	obj	_	_
46	in	in	ADP	IN	_	47	case	_	_
47	exchange	exchange	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	43	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
48	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **admit** *speech: other* | past | the Bassankwala people |  | the author |  |  |  | vn confess-37.10 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to author=Recipient |
| 2 | **eat** | past | people | human beings |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent being=Patient |
| 3 | **do** | past · perfect | the Bassankwala people *not said here* |  |  |  |  | always *property* | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **assert** | past | people |  |  |  |  | vehemently *property* | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **not** **eat** | past · do-support | people | people's own dead |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dead=Patient |
| 6 | **pass on** | past | these |  |  | the next town |  | people *nsubj* | vn send-11.1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent to town=Destination |
| 7 | **send** | past | the next town | people |  | exchange |  |  | vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Destination their=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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