---
title: As they became richer they bought slaves and canoes and lived in sep… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: As they became richer they bought slaves and canoes and lived in separate houses, each man having one wife. Who acts: friends, man. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xv.--what Happened At Okuni When Anyone Was Killed By Accident., with its dependency tre
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xv.--what Happened At Okuni When Anyone Was Killed By Accident., sentence 15

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As they became richer they bought slaves and canoes and lived in separate houses, each man having one wife.

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**Who acts:** friends, man · **What happens:** become, buy, live, have · **To what, where:** slaves, separate houses, one wife

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This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xv.--what Happened At Okuni When Anyone Was Killed By Accident.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (friends, 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:pg70959:12:15
# text = As they became richer they bought slaves and canoes and lived in separate houses, each man having one wife.
1	As	as	SCONJ	IN	_	3	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	richer	rich	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	xcomp	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	bought	buy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
7	slaves	slave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	canoes	canoe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	conj	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	separate	separate	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	houses	house	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	17	det	_	_
17	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	having	have	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	advcl	_	_
19	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	20	nummod	_	_
20	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **become** | past | friends *= friend* |  |  |  |  | rich *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **buy** | past | friends *= friend* | slaves and canoes |  |  |  |  | vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent slave=Theme |
| 3 | **live** | past | friends *= friend* *not said here* |  |  | separate houses |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in house=Location |
| 4 | **have** | gerund | each man | one wife |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wife=Patient |

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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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