---
title: When the food began to get scarce, Chief ’Njum told his son to go hu… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: When the food began to get scarce, Chief ’Njum told his son to go hunting every day to supply meat for everybody. Who acts: food, 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 pragmatic
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/14/5/)

<!-- 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/) / 5

# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water., sentence 5

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When the food began to get scarce, Chief ’Njum told his son to go hunting every day to supply meat for everybody.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** food, Njum · **What happens:** begin, get, tell, go, hunt, supply · **To what, where:** son, meat · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .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 (food, Njum), 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:pg70959:14:5
# text = When the food began to get scarce, Chief ’Njum told his son to go hunting every day to supply meat for everybody.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
5	to	to	PART	TO	_	6	mark	_	_
6	get	get	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
7	scarce	scarce	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
9	Chief	Chief	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	nmod:poss	_	_
10	’	's	PART	POS	_	9	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	Njum	Njum	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	iobj	_	_
15	to	to	PART	TO	_	16	mark	_	_
16	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
17	hunting	hunt	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	16	xcomp	_	_
18	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	19	det	_	_
19	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl:unmarked	_	_
20	to	to	PART	TO	_	21	mark	_	_
21	supply	supply	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	advcl	_	_
22	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	_
23	for	for	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	everybody	everybody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Tot	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **begin** | past | the food |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **get** | to-infinitive | the food *not said here* |  |  |  |  | scarce *property* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Chief's Njum |  | Njum's son |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent son=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 4 | **go** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Chief's Njum *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **hunt** | gerund | Chief's Njum *not said here* |  |  |  | day |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **supply** | to-infinitive | Chief's Njum *not said here* | meat |  |  |  | for everybody | vn fulfilling-13.4.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent meat=Theme for everybody=Recipient |

<!-- .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 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/14/4/)
- next →: [sentence 6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/14/6/)
- ↑ back to [Xix.--why the Mist Rises From the Water.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/14/)