---
title: When I first came to this district, poisoning was rife, and human sa… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: When I first came to this district, poisoning was rife, and human sacrifices were of frequent occurrence. Who acts: I, human sacrifices. 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 79

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When I first came to this district, poisoning was rife, and human sacrifices were of frequent occurrence.

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**Who acts:** I, human sacrifices · **What happens:** come, be · **To what, where:** district, poisoning rife

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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 (I, human sacrifices), 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:pg70959:1:79
# text = When I first came to this district, poisoning was rife, and human sacrifices were of frequent occurrence.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	first	first	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	4	advmod	_	_
4	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	7	det	_	_
7	district	district	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	poisoning	poisoning	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
11	rife	rife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
14	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	sacrifices	sacrifice	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
16	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	frequent	frequent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	occurrence	occurrence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | I |  |  | this district and poisoning rife |  | first *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to district=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **is a** | past | I *not said here* | poisoning rife |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | human sacrifices |  |  |  |  | of frequent occurrence | 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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