---
title: In this town many years ago there lived two young men called Abang a… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: In this town many years ago there lived two young men called Abang and Oga ’Ngigor. Who acts: two young men. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of ev
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 1, sentence 2

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In this town many years ago there lived two young men called Abang and Oga ’Ngigor.

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**Who acts:** two young men · **What happens:** live, call · **To what, where:** town, Ngigor · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (two young men), 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:pg70959:18:2
# text = In this town many years ago there lived two young men called Abang and Oga ’Ngigor.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	town	town	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
4	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obl:unmarked	_	_
6	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	8	advmod	_	_
8	lived	live	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	nummod	_	_
10	young	young	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
12	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	ccomp	_	_
13	Abang	Abang	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nmod:poss	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	Oga	Oga	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	_
16	’	's	PART	POS	_	13	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	Ngigor	Ngigor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **live** | past |  |  |  | this town; there | year |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **call** | past | two young men |  | Abang and Oga's Ngigor |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent ngigor=Recipient |

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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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