---
title: And the head chief replied, “He is tied up to a tree, and left there… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: And the head chief replied, “He is tied up to a tree, and left there to die.” ’ Who acts: head chief. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxiii.--why Edidor Killed Her Husband and Her Lover., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxiii.--why Edidor Killed Her Husband and Her Lover., sentence 151

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And the head chief replied, “He is tied up to a tree, and left there to die.” ’

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**Who acts:** head chief · **What happens:** reply, tie up, leave, die · **To what, where:** head chief, chief · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (head chief), 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:pg70959:17:151
# text = And the head chief replied, “He is tied up to a tree, and left there to die.” ’
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	compound	_	_
4	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
5	replied	reply	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj:pass	_	_
9	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux:pass	_	_
10	tied	tie	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
11	up	up	ADP	RP	_	10	compound:prt	_	_
12	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
13	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
17	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
18	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	17	advmod	_	_
19	to	to	PART	TO	_	20	mark	_	_
20	die	die	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	_
23	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reply** *speech: assert* | participle |  | the head chief *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **tie up** *in a quote* | present · passive |  | chief |  |  |  | to a tree | vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: subject=Patient to tree=Co-Patient |
| 3 | **leave** *in a quote* | past | the head chief |  |  | there |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **die** *in a quote* | to-infinitive | the head chief *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

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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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