---
title: In the middle of the night Oga Erim died in great pain, and one of t… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: In the middle of the night Oga Erim died in great pain, and one of the slaves at once ran off and told the head slave what had happened. Who acts: Oga, head slave. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., pa
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxv.--how Two Bendega Young Men Changed Their Skins., part 3, sentence 55

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In the middle of the night Oga Erim died in great pain, and one of the slaves at once ran off and told the head slave what had happened.

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**Who acts:** Oga, head slave · **What happens:** die, run off, tell, happen · **To what, where:** one, head slave · **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 (Oga, head slave), 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:pg70959:20:55
# text = In the middle of the night Oga Erim died in great pain, and one of the slaves at once ran off and told the head slave what had happened.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	middle	middle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	Oga	Oga	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
8	Erim	Erim	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	flat	_	_
9	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	pain	pain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	obl	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	slaves	slave	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nmod	_	_
19	at	at	SCONJ	IN	_	21	mark	_	_
20	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	21	advmod	_	_
21	ran	run	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
22	off	off	ADP	RP	_	21	compound:prt	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	conj	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
26	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	_
27	slave	slave	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
28	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	30	nsubj	_	_
29	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	30	aux	_	_
30	happened	happen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	27	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **die** | past | Oga | one of the slaves |  |  |  | in great pain; in the middle of the night | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in middle=Attribute |
| 2 | **run off** | past | Oga *not said here* |  |  |  |  | once *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Oga *not said here* | the head slave |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent slave=Recipient |
| 4 | **happen** | past · perfect | the head slave |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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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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