---
title: He told them to kill the python and to bring ’Ndere back to him. — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: He told them to kill the python and to bring ’Ndere back to him. Who acts: Chief. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 1, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 1, sentence 60

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He told them to kill the python and to bring ’Ndere back to him.

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**Who acts:** Chief · **What happens:** tell, kill, bring · **To what, where:** orders, python, Ndere · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., 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 (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:pg70959:24:60
# text = He told them to kill the python and to bring ’Ndere back to him.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	iobj	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	xcomp	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	python	python	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	bring	bring	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
11	’	'	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	Ndere	Ndere	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	back	back	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	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 |  | orders *= order* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent they=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **kill** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | Chief *not said here* | the python |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent python=Theme |
| 3 | **bring** | to-infinitive | Chief *not said here* |  | Ndere |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument ndere=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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