---
title: Okpa and his wife then called their children together and sat down a… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: Okpa and his wife then called their children together and sat down and eat the poisoned food and drank the tombo, but Okpa’s youngest son would not eat or drink anything. Who acts: Okpa, youngest son. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xv.--what Happened 
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xv.--what Happened At Okuni When Anyone Was Killed By Accident., sentence 44

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Okpa and his wife then called their children together and sat down and eat the poisoned food and drank the tombo, but Okpa’s youngest son would not eat or drink anything.

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**Who acts:** Okpa, youngest son · **What happens:** call, sit down, eat, poison, drink, not eat · **To what, where:** children, poisoned food, tombo, anything · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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, youngest son), 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:pg70959:12:44
# text = Okpa and his wife then called their children together and sat down and eat the poisoned food and drank the tombo, but Okpa’s youngest son would not eat or drink anything.
1	Okpa	Okpa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
2	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
3	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	conj	_	_
5	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	6	advmod	_	_
6	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	obj	_	_
9	together	together	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	sat	sit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
12	down	down	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	eat	eat	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	poisoned	poison	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	17	amod	_	_
17	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	drank	drink	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	conj	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	tombo	tombo	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
23	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
24	Okpa	Okpa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	’s	's	PART	POS	_	24	case	_	_
26	youngest	young	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	27	amod	_	_
27	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	nsubj	_	_
28	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
29	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	30	advmod	_	_
30	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	parataxis	_	_
31	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	drink	drink	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	conj	_	_
33	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **call** *speech: assert* | past | Okpa and OKPA's wife |  | calabashes's children |  | then | together *property* | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent child=Recipient |
| 2 | **sit down** | past | Okpa and OKPA's wife *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **eat** | present | Okpa and OKPA's wife *not said here* | the poisoned food |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent food=Patient |
| 4 | **poison** | participle |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **drink** | past | Okpa and OKPA's wife *not said here* | the tombo |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tombo=Patient |
| 6 | **not** **eat** | would | Okpa's youngest son |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 7 | **drink** | infinitive | Okpa's youngest son *not said here* | anything |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=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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