---
title: In the olden days at Okuni, when the women were circumcised, they we… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: In the olden days at Okuni, when the women were circumcised, they were kept in the fatting-house for a long time and given plenty of food to eat. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 3, with 
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 3, sentence 24

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In the olden days at Okuni, when the women were circumcised, they were kept in the fatting-house for a long time and given plenty of food to eat.

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**What happens:** circumcise, keep, give, eat · **To what, where:** women, goats, fatting house, plenty

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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 3. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg70959:26:24
# text = In the olden days at Okuni, when the women were circumcised, they were kept in the fatting-house for a long time and given plenty of food to eat.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	olden	olden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	Okuni	Okuni	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	12	advmod	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj:pass	_	_
11	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux:pass	_	_
12	circumcised	circumcise	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj:pass	_	_
15	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	kept	keep	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	advcl	_	_
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
19	fatting	fatting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
22	for	for	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
23	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
24	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	25	amod	_	_
25	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	_
26	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
27	given	give	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	conj	_	_
28	plenty	plenty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nmod	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	28	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **circumcise** | past · passive |  | the women |  |  | day |  | vn remedy-45.7 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **keep** | past · passive |  | goats *= goat* |  | the fatting house | time |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: subject=Theme in house=Location |
| 3 | **give** | participle |  | plenty of food |  |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent plenty=Theme |
| 4 | **eat** | to-infinitive |  | plenty of food *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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