---
title: Chief Oga tried his best to make her drink, but Obim would not do so… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: Chief Oga tried his best to make her drink, but Obim would not do so, and said she had merely come to hear what he might have to say. Who acts: Chief, Obim. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxiii.--why Edidor Killed Her Husband and Her Lover., with its 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/17/83/)

<!-- 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/) / 83

# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxiii.--why Edidor Killed Her Husband and Her Lover., sentence 83

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Chief Oga tried his best to make her drink, but Obim would not do so, and said she had merely come to hear what he might have to say.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Chief, Obim · **What happens:** try, make, not do, say, come, hear · **To what, where:** best, drink · **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 (Chief, Obim), 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:pg70959:17:83
# text = Chief Oga tried his best to make her drink, but Obim would not do so, and said she had merely come to hear what he might have to say.
1	Chief	Chief	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	Oga	Oga	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	_
3	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	5	nmod:poss	_	_
5	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	3	obj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
8	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	drink	drink	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
11	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
12	Obim	Obim	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
13	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	do	do	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
16	so	so	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
20	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
21	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
22	merely	merely	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	ccomp	_	_
24	to	to	PART	TO	_	25	mark	_	_
25	hear	hear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	xcomp	_	_
26	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	29	obj	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	have	have	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	ccomp	_	_
30	to	to	PART	TO	_	31	mark	_	_
31	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | past | Chief | chief's best |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **make** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Chief *not said here* | OBIM's drink |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset drink=Product |
| 3 | **not** **do** | would | Obim |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Chief *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **come** | past | OBIM |  |  |  |  | merely *property* | tree rules |
| 6 | **hear** | to-infinitive | OBIM *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 7 | **have** | might | chief |  |  |  |  | what *obj* | tree rules |
| 8 | **say** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | chief *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 82](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/17/82/)
- next →: [sentence 84](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/17/84/)
- ↑ back to [Xxiii.--why Edidor Killed Her Husband and Her Lover.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/17/)