---
title: When the people took the chief’s body into the back-yard to wash it,… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: When the people took the chief’s body into the back-yard to wash it, they found that a certain part of his body had been cut off. Who acts: people. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxiii.--why Edidor Killed Her Husband and Her Lover., with its dependenc
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/17/131/)

<!-- 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/) / [Xxiii.--why Edidor Killed Her Husband…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/17/) / 131

# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxiii.--why Edidor Killed Her Husband and Her Lover., sentence 131

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When the people took the chief’s body into the back-yard to wash it, they found that a certain part of his body had been cut off.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** people · **What happens:** take, wash, find, cut off · **To what, where:** body, certain part · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxiii.--why Edidor Killed Her Husband and Her Lover.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (people), 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:pg70959:17:131
# text = When the people took the chief’s body into the back-yard to wash it, they found that a certain part of his body had been cut off.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	advcl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	’s	's	PART	POS	_	6	case	_	_
8	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
9	into	into	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
11	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	yard	yard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	wash	wash	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	advcl	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
18	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	part	part	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj:pass	_	_
24	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nmod	_	_
27	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
28	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	29	aux:pass	_	_
29	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	19	ccomp	_	_
30	off	off	ADP	RP	_	29	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	19	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | the people | the chief's body |  |  |  | into the back yard | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent body=Theme into yard=Destination |
| 2 | **wash** | to-infinitive | the people *not said here* | body |  |  |  |  | vn floss-41.2.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient |
| 3 | **find** | past | people |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 4 | **cut off** | past · perfect · passive |  | a certain part of chief's body |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: subject=Eventuality |

<!-- .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 130](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/17/130/)
- next →: [sentence 132](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/17/132/)
- ↑ back to [Xxiii.--why Edidor Killed Her Husband and Her Lover.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/17/)