---
title: My father catch one slave man, they call ’im Okon and he good man, s… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: My father catch one slave man, they call ’im Okon and he good man, so my father dash him them two goat. Who acts: father, brothers. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Opening, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 62

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My father catch one slave man, they call ’im Okon and he good man, so my father dash him them two goat.

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**Who acts:** father, brothers · **What happens:** catch, call, man, dash · **To what, where:** one slave man, ’, man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (father, brothers), 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:pg70959:1:62
# text = My father catch one slave man, they call ’im Okon and he good man, so my father dash him them two goat.
1	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	catch	catch	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	nummod	_	_
5	slave	slave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	call	call	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	’	'	X	GW	_	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	im	im	X	GW	_	10	goeswith	_	_
12	Okon	Okon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	flat	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
18	so	so	ADV	RB	_	21	advmod	_	_
19	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
21	dash	dash	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
22	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
23	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	21	obj	_	_
24	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	25	nummod	_	_
25	goat	goat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **catch** | infinitive | My father | one slave man |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Theme |
| 2 | **call** | present | brothers *= brother* | ’ and good man |  |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent '=Recipient |
| 3 | **man** |  | father |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **dash** | infinitive | my father | man |  |  |  | brothers *= brother* *obj*; two goat *obj* | tree rules |

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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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