---
title: When Agborleku arrived, Chief ’Njum told him what had happened to hi… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: When Agborleku arrived, Chief ’Njum told him what had happened to his wife. Who acts: Agborleku, 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 39

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When Agborleku arrived, Chief ’Njum told him what had happened to his wife.

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**Who acts:** Agborleku, Njum · **What happens:** arrive, tell, happen · **To what, where:** Agborleku · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Agborleku, 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:pg70959:14:39
# text = When Agborleku arrived, Chief ’Njum told him what had happened to his wife.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	Agborleku	Agborleku	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	arrived	arrive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	Chief	Chief	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nmod:poss	_	_
6	’	's	PART	POS	_	5	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	Njum	Njum	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	iobj	_	_
10	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	12	nsubj	_	_
11	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	happened	happen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	8	ccomp	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **arrive** | past | Agborleku |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Chief's Njum |  | Agborleku |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **happen** | past · perfect |  |  |  |  |  | to Agborleku's wife; what *nsubj* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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