---
title: When Ogbaja grew up, he became a hunter, and being a good shot with… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: When Ogbaja grew up, he became a hunter, and being a good shot with his bow and arrows he nearly always succeeded in bringing back some meat, which he took to his father. Who acts: Ogbaja, meat. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xix.--why the Mist Rises 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/14/3/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/) / [Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/14/) / 3

# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water., sentence 3

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When Ogbaja grew up, he became a hunter, and being a good shot with his bow and arrows he nearly always succeeded in bringing back some meat, which he took to his father.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Ogbaja, meat · **What happens:** grow up, become, be, arrow, succeed, bring back · **To what, where:** hunter, good shot, meat

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Ogbaja, meat), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg70959:14:3
# text = When Ogbaja grew up, he became a hunter, and being a good shot with his bow and arrows he nearly always succeeded in bringing back some meat, which he took to his father.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	Ogbaja	Ogbaja	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	grew	grow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	_
4	up	up	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
6	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
7	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	hunter	hunter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	cop	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
14	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	shot	shot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	xcomp	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	bow	bow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	arrows	arrow	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	nearly	nearly	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
23	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	24	advmod	_	_
24	succeeded	succeed	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	20	ccomp	_	_
25	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
26	bringing	bring	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	24	advcl	_	_
27	back	back	ADV	RB	_	26	advmod	_	_
28	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	29	det	_	_
29	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	26	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
31	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	33	nsubj	_	_
32	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	acl:relcl	_	_
34	to	to	ADP	IN	_	36	case	_	_
35	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	36	nmod:poss	_	_
36	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
37	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **grow up** | past | Ogbaja |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **become** | past | Ogbaja | a hunter |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 3 | **is a** | gerund | Ogbaja *not said here* | a good shot |  |  |  | with Ogbaja's bow | tree rules |
| 4 | **arrow** | present | Ogbaja *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **succeed** | participle | Ogbaja |  |  |  |  | always, nearly *property* | vn succeed-74-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **bring back** | gerund | Ogbaja *not said here* | some meat |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent meat=Theme |
| 7 | **take** | past | some meat |  |  |  |  | to Ogbaja's father *result*; Ogbaja *nsubj* | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to father=Result |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/14/2/)
- next →: [sentence 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/14/4/)
- ↑ back to [Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/14/)