---
title: They generally reply: “Black man ju-ju no be strong enough to hurt w… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: They generally reply: “Black man ju-ju no be strong enough to hurt white man, but black man he go die one time.” Who acts: goods, Black man, man. 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 78

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They generally reply: “Black man ju-ju no be strong enough to hurt white man, but black man he go die one time.”

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**Who acts:** goods, Black man, man · **What happens:** reply, ju, be, hurt, go, die · **To what, where:** white man, black 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 (goods, Black man, man), 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:pg70959:1:78
# text = They generally reply: “Black man ju-ju no be strong enough to hurt white man, but black man he go die one time.”
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	generally	generally	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	reply	reply	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	Black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
8	ju	ju	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	ju	ju	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
11	no	no	DET	DT	PronType=Neg	13	det	_	_
12	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	cop	_	_
13	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
14	enough	enough	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	hurt	hurt	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	_
17	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
20	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
21	black	black	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	amod	_	_
22	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
23	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	go	go	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|Typo=Yes|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
25	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	24	xcomp	_	_
26	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	27	nummod	_	_
27	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | present | goods |  |  |  |  | generally *property* | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **ju** *in a quote* |  | Black man |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  | enough, strong *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **hurt** *in a quote* | to-infinitive |  | white man |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer man=Patient |
| 5 | **go** *in a quote* | present | man | black man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **die** *in a quote* | infinitive | man *not said here* |  |  |  | time |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

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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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