---
title: Chief ’Njum was a poor man, but he had a farm and a few slaves to wo… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: Chief ’Njum was a poor man, but he had a farm and a few slaves to work for him. Who acts: Njum. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water., sentence 2

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Chief ’Njum was a poor man, but he had a farm and a few slaves to work for him.

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**Who acts:** Njum · **What happens:** be, have, work · **To what, where:** poor man, farm

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This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Njum), 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:pg70959:14:2
# text = Chief ’Njum was a poor man, but he had a farm and a few slaves to work for him.
1	Chief	Chief	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nmod:poss	_	_
2	’	's	PART	POS	_	1	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	Njum	Njum	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	farm	farm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	few	few	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	slaves	slave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	conj	_	_
18	to	to	PART	TO	_	19	mark	_	_
19	work	work	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
20	for	for	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | Chief's Njum | a poor man |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **have** | past | Njum | a farm and a few slaves |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent farm=Patient |
| 3 | **work** | to-infinitive | Njum *not said here* |  |  |  |  | for Njum | vn employment-95.3 «NP V PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent for he=Beneficiary |

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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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