---
title: At last it was decided to poison Oga Erim, so the slaves brought a v… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: At last it was decided to poison Oga Erim, so the slaves brought a very strong poison made from the horns of a ram and some of the hair from the mane cut into small pieces. Who acts: slaves. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young M
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/20/50/)

<!-- 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/pg70959/20/) / 50

# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 3, sentence 50

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
At last it was decided to poison Oga Erim, so the slaves brought a very strong poison made from the horns of a ram and some of the hair from the mane cut into small pieces.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** slaves · **What happens:** decide, poison, bring, make, cut · **To what, where:** last, Oga, strong poison, horns, mane

<!-- .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 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (slaves), 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:pg70959:20:50
# text = At last it was decided to poison Oga Erim, so the slaves brought a very strong poison made from the horns of a ram and some of the hair from the mane cut into small pieces.
1	At	at	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
2	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
5	decided	decide	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	poison	poison	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	xcomp	_	_
8	Oga	Oga	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
9	Erim	Erim	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	so	so	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	slaves	slave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	14	nsubj	_	_
14	brought	bring	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
16	very	very	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
17	strong	strong	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	poison	poison	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
19	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	18	acl	_	_
20	from	from	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	horns	horn	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obl	_	_
23	of	of	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	ram	ram	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	nmod	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
27	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	33	nsubj	_	_
28	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	nmod	_	_
31	from	from	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
33	mane	mane	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	conj	_	_
34	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	33	acl	_	_
35	into	into	ADP	IN	_	37	case	_	_
36	small	small	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	pieces	piece	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	34	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **decide** | past · passive |  | last |  |  |  | way *nsubj:pass* | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V PP.co-agent that S»: subject=Co-Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **poison** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive |  | Oga |  |  |  |  | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent oga=Patient |
| 3 | **bring** | past | the slaves | a strong poison |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent poison=Theme |
| 4 | **make** | participle |  | a strong poison *not said here* |  | the horns of a ram and the mane |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V PP»: agent=Asset from horn=Material |
| 5 | **cut** | participle |  | the mane *not said here* |  |  |  | into small pieces | vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent into piece=Patient |

<!-- .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 49](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/20/49/)
- next →: [sentence 51](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/20/51/)
- ↑ back to [Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/20/)