---
title: While Oga was sitting down in his house feeling sad and miserable, h… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: While Oga was sitting down in his house feeling sad and miserable, he sometimes thought of Abang, who belonged to his company, and envied him his good looks and his popularity. Who acts: Oga, Abang. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxv.--how Two Bendega
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 1, sentence 9

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While Oga was sitting down in his house feeling sad and miserable, he sometimes thought of Abang, who belonged to his company, and envied him his good looks and his popularity.

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**Who acts:** Oga, Abang · **What happens:** sit down, feel, think, belong, envy · **To what, where:** house, Oga

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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 (Oga, Abang), 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:pg70959:18:9
# text = While Oga was sitting down in his house feeling sad and miserable, he sometimes thought of Abang, who belonged to his company, and envied him his good looks and his popularity.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	Oga	Oga	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	sitting	sit	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	advcl	_	_
5	down	down	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
9	feeling	feel	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	4	advcl	_	_
10	sad	sad	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	xcomp	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	miserable	miserable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	sometimes	sometimes	ADV	RB	PronType=Ind	16	advmod	_	_
16	thought	think	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	Abang	Abang	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	21	punct	_	_
20	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	21	nsubj	_	_
21	belonged	belong	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	acl:relcl	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
23	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	24	nmod:poss	_	_
24	company	company	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	envied	envy	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	conj	_	_
28	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	27	obj	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	31	nmod:poss	_	_
30	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	31	amod	_	_
31	looks	look	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	27	obj	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	34	cc	_	_
33	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	34	nmod:poss	_	_
34	popularity	popularity	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	31	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **sit down** | past · progressive | Oga |  |  | Oga's house |  | down *property* | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in house=Location |
| 2 | **feel** | gerund | Oga *not said here* |  |  |  |  | sad *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | past | Oga |  |  |  |  | of Abang; sometimes *property* | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **belong** | past | Abang |  |  |  |  | to Oga's company | vn attend-107.4-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **envy** | past | Oga *not said here* | Oga |  |  |  | Oga's good looks and Oga's popularity *obj* | tree rules |

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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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