---
title: Chief Erim then told his wife to go back to Okuni and take her son w… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: Chief Erim then told his wife to go back to Okuni and take her son with her. Who acts: Chief. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 3, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 3, sentence 37

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Chief Erim then told his wife to go back to Okuni and take her son with her.

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**Who acts:** Chief · **What happens:** tell, go back, take · **To what, where:** wife, Okuni, son · **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 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Chief), 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:pg70959:20:37
# text = Chief Erim then told his wife to go back to Okuni and take her son with her.
1	Chief	Chief	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
2	Erim	Erim	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	_
3	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
4	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	iobj	_	_
7	to	to	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	xcomp	_	_
9	back	back	ADV	RB	_	8	advmod	_	_
10	to	to	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	Okuni	Okuni	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
14	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
16	with	with	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Chief |  | Chief's wife |  | then |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent wife=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **go back** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Chief *not said here* |  | Okuni |  |  |  | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to okuni=Result |
| 3 | **take** | infinitive | Chief *not said here* |  | Okuni's son |  |  | with Okuni | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument son=Destination |

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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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