---
title: But before Okpa arrived Oghabi had cut the snake’s mouth and body ri… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: But before Okpa arrived Oghabi had cut the snake’s mouth and body right down with his hunting knife and released his leg. Who acts: Okpa. 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 dependen
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xv.--what Happened At Okuni When Anyone Was Killed By Accident., sentence 24

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But before Okpa arrived Oghabi had cut the snake’s mouth and body right down with his hunting knife and released his leg.

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**Who acts:** Okpa · **What happens:** arrive, cut, release · **To what, where:** Oghabi, mouth, leg

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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 (Okpa), 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:pg70959:12:24
# text = But before Okpa arrived Oghabi had cut the snake’s mouth and body right down with his hunting knife and released his leg.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
2	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	Okpa	Okpa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	arrived	arrive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
5	Oghabi	Oghabi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
6	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
7	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	snake	snake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	’s	's	PART	POS	_	9	case	_	_
11	mouth	mouth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	_
14	right	right	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
15	down	down	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	19	nmod:poss	_	_
18	hunting	hunting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	_
19	knife	knife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	21	cc	_	_
21	released	release	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
22	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	23	nmod:poss	_	_
23	leg	leg	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **arrive** | past | Okpa | Oghabi |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **cut** | past · perfect |  | the snake's mouth and body |  |  |  | with OKPA's hunting knife; down *property* | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mouth=Patient with knife=Instrument |
| 3 | **release** | past |  | OKPA's leg |  |  |  |  | vn free-10.6.3-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Causer leg=Source |

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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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