---
title: They would then resort to the usual trial by ordeal of burning oil a… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: They would then resort to the usual trial by ordeal of burning oil and _essure_ (poison) bean, which would result in several deaths. Who acts: chiefs, poison bean. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Opening, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of 
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Opening, sentence 81

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They would then resort to the usual trial by ordeal of burning oil and \_essure\_ (poison) bean, which would result in several deaths.

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**Who acts:** chiefs, poison bean · **What happens:** resort, burn, result · **To what, where:** poison bean, several deaths

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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 (chiefs, poison bean), 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:pg70959:1:81
# text = They would then resort to the usual trial by ordeal of burning oil and _essure_ (poison) bean, which would result in several deaths.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
4	resort	resort	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	usual	usual	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	trial	trial	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
9	by	by	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	ordeal	ordeal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	burning	burn	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	13	amod	_	_
13	oil	oil	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	essure	essure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	_	_	PUNCT	NFP	_	21	punct	_	_
18	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	poison	poison	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	19	punct	_	_
21	bean	bean	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
23	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	25	nsubj	_	_
24	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	result	result	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	21	acl:relcl	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	several	several	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	deaths	death	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **resort** | would | chiefs *= chief* | poison bean |  |  | then | to the usual trial *result*; by ordeal of burning oil and essure | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to trial=Result |
| 2 | **burn** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn light\_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **result** | would | poison bean |  |  | several deaths |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in death=Location |

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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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