---
title: I at once asked him why he said so, and he replied, “When them witch… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: I at once asked him why he said so, and he replied, “When them witch bird cry for day time, some man go die.” Who acts: I, Okuni, labourers, 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 87

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I at once asked him why he said so, and he replied, “When them witch bird cry for day time, some man go die.”

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**Who acts:** I, Okuni, labourers, man · **What happens:** ask, say, reply, witch, go · **To what, where:** Okuni, bird cry, die · **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 (I, Okuni, labourers, 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:pg70959:1:87
# text = I at once asked him why he said so, and he replied, “When them witch bird cry for day time, some man go die.”
1	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	at	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	4	obl	_	_
4	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	iobj	_	_
6	why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	_
7	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
9	so	so	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	replied	reply	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
15	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	18	advmod	_	_
17	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	witch	witch	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	advcl	_	_
19	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	_
20	cry	cry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	for	for	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	compound	_	_
23	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
25	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	26	det	_	_
26	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nsubj	_	_
27	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
28	die	die	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	27	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | I |  | Okuni |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Okuni |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **reply** *speech: assert* | past | Okuni |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **witch** *in a quote* | present | labourers *= labourer* | bird cry |  |  | time |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **go** *in a quote* | infinitive | some man | die |  |  |  |  | vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location die=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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