---
title: When he got near the town one of the natives of the country, through… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: When he got near the town one of the natives of the country, through whose farm the path passed, told him that Chief Ojong Egussa was dead, and that his funeral was being kept at ’Nkanassa compound, where a big play was going on and much drinking and feasting. Who acts: Oga, path, Ojong Egussa, big 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/18/19/)

<!-- 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/) / [Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Change…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/18/) / 19

# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 1, sentence 19

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When he got near the town one of the natives of the country, through whose farm the path passed, told him that Chief Ojong Egussa was dead, and that his funeral was being kept at ’Nkanassa compound, where a big play was going on and much drinking and feasting.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Oga, path, Ojong Egussa, big play · **What happens:** get, pass, tell, be, keep, go on · **To what, where:** town, farm, Oga, funeral, Nkanassa compound · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Oga, path, Ojong Egussa, big play), 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:pg70959:18:19
# text = When he got near the town one of the natives of the country, through whose farm the path passed, told him that Chief Ojong Egussa was dead, and that his funeral was being kept at ’Nkanassa compound, where a big play was going on and much drinking and feasting.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	got	get	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	advcl	_	_
4	near	near	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	6	flat	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	natives	native	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nmod	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
15	through	through	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	17	nmod:poss	_	_
17	farm	farm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	path	path	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
20	passed	pass	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
22	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	iobj	_	_
24	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
25	Chief	Chief	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	compound	_	_
26	Ojong	Ojong	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	_
27	Egussa	Egussa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	29	nsubj	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
29	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	37	punct	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	37	cc	_	_
32	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	37	mark	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	funeral	funeral	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	nsubj:pass	_	_
35	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	37	aux:pass	_	_
36	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	37	aux:pass	_	_
37	kept	keep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	conj	_	_
38	at	at	ADP	IN	_	41	case	_	_
39	’	'	PUNCT	``	_	41	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	Nkanassa	Nkanassa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	41	compound	_	_
41	compound	compound	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
42	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	48	punct	_	_
43	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	48	advmod	_	_
44	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	46	det	_	_
45	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	46	amod	_	_
46	play	play	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	48	nsubj	_	_
47	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	48	aux	_	_
48	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	41	conj	_	_
49	on	on	ADP	RP	_	48	compound:prt	_	_
50	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	52	cc	_	_
51	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	52	amod	_	_
52	drinking	drinking	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	conj	_	_
53	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	54	cc	_	_
54	feasting	feasting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	41	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	22	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **get** | past | Oga |  |  | the town |  | through farm | vn escape-51.1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme through farm=Destination |
| 2 | **pass** | past | the path | farm *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme farm=Trajectory |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past |  |  | Oga |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient |
| 4 | **is** | past | Ojong Egussa |  |  |  |  | dead *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **keep** | past · passive |  | Oga's funeral |  | Nkanassa compound and much drinking and feasting |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: subject=Theme at compound=Location |
| 6 | **go on** | past · progressive | a big play |  |  |  |  |  | vn function-105.2.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/18/18/)
- next →: [sentence 20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/18/20/)
- ↑ back to [Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/18/)