---
title: At last he decided to poison them as he did not wish to kill them op… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: At last he decided to poison them as he did not wish to kill them openly with a matchet. Who acts: OGHABI. 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 tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xv.--what Happened At Okuni When Anyone Was Killed By Accident., sentence 36

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At last he decided to poison them as he did not wish to kill them openly with a matchet.

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**Who acts:** OGHABI · **What happens:** decide, poison, not wish, kill · **To what, where:** last, friends

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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 (OGHABI), 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:pg70959:12:36
# text = At last he decided to poison them as he did not wish to kill them openly with a matchet.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	last	last	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	decided	decide	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	poison	poison	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	obj	_	_
8	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
11	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	wish	wish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	openly	openly	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
17	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	matchet	matchet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	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 | **decide** | past | OGHABI |  |  | last |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **poison** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | OGHABI *not said here* | friends *= friend* |  |  |  |  | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient |
| 3 | **not** **wish** | past · do-support | OGHABI |  |  |  |  |  | vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 4 | **kill** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | OGHABI *not said here* | friends *= friend* |  |  |  | with a matchet; openly *property* | vn murder-42.1-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent they=Patient with matchet=Instrument |

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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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