---
title: At last he told Chief ’Njum not to do anything for two months, as, b… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: At last he told Chief ’Njum not to do anything for two months, as, by that time, the witches would think they were quite safe. Who acts: Chief, witches. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water., with its dependency tree 
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water., sentence 41

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At last he told Chief ’Njum not to do anything for two months, as, by that time, the witches would think they were quite safe.

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**Who acts:** Chief, witches · **What happens:** tell, not do, think, be · **To what, where:** Njum, last, anything · **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 (Chief, witches), 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:pg70959:14:41
# text = At last he told Chief ’Njum not to do anything for two months, as, by that time, the witches would think they were quite safe.
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	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
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	4	iobj	_	_
8	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
11	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	10	obj	_	_
12	for	for	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	nummod	_	_
14	months	month	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
16	as	as	ADP	IN	ExtPos=ADP	20	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
18	by	by	ADP	IN	_	16	fixed	_	_
19	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	20	det	_	_
20	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	witches	witch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nsubj	_	_
24	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
25	think	think	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
26	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
27	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
28	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	safe	safe	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Chief |  | Chief's Njum | last |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent njum=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **do** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Chief *not said here* | anything |  |  | month; time |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Eventuality |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | would | the witches |  |  |  |  |  | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | past | witches *= witch* |  |  |  |  | safe *property* | tree rules |

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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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