---
title: And now whenever people are asked to change their skins they always… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: And now whenever people are asked to change their skins they always refuse, but sometimes they will lend their best cloth to a friend. Who acts: people. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 1, with 
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 1, sentence 44

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And now whenever people are asked to change their skins they always refuse, but sometimes they will lend their best cloth to a friend.

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**Who acts:** people · **What happens:** ask, change, refuse, lend · **To what, where:** people, skins, best cloth, friend

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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 (people), 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:pg70959:18:44
# text = And now whenever people are asked to change their skins they always refuse, but sometimes they will lend their best cloth to a friend.
1	And	and	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
3	whenever	whenever	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	0	root	_	_
4	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj:pass	_	_
5	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	6	aux:pass	_	_
6	asked	ask	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	advcl:relcl	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	change	change	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	xcomp	_	_
9	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	skins	skin	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	obj	_	_
11	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	13	advmod	_	_
13	refuse	refuse	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
16	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	19	advmod	_	_
17	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	lend	lend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	parataxis	_	_
20	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
21	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	22	amod	_	_
22	cloth	cloth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	friend	friend	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ask** *speech: ask* | present · passive |  | people |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S\_INF»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **change** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | people *not said here* | people's skins |  |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent skin=Patient |
| 3 | **refuse** | present | people | people's skins *not said here* |  |  |  | always *property* | vn reject-77.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent skin=Theme |
| 4 | **lend** | future | people | people's best cloth | a friend |  |  | sometimes *property* | vn give-13.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent cloth=Theme to friend=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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