---
title: Chief Alobi passed a law that women should not eat animals killed by… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: Chief Alobi passed a law that women should not eat animals killed by the men in hunting, and that the men should not eat the fish caught by the women. Who acts: Chief, women, men. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Wh
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/26/9/)

<!-- 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/) / [Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/26/) / 9

# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 3, sentence 9

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Chief Alobi passed a law that women should not eat animals killed by the men in hunting, and that the men should not eat the fish caught by the women.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Chief, women, men · **What happens:** pass, not eat, kill, catch · **To what, where:** law, animals, hunting, fish

<!-- .vabout -->
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: who acts (Chief, women, men), 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:pg70959:26:9
# text = Chief Alobi passed a law that women should not eat animals killed by the men in hunting, and that the men should not eat the fish caught by the women.
1	Chief	Chief	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	Alobi	Alobi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	_
3	passed	pass	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	law	law	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	obj	_	_
7	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
8	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
10	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	acl:relcl	_	_
11	animals	animal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	_
12	killed	kill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	acl	_	_
13	by	by	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	hunting	hunting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	25	mark	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nsubj	_	_
23	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
25	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	parataxis	_	_
26	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
27	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	obj	_	_
28	caught	catch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	27	acl	_	_
29	by	by	ADP	IN	_	31	case	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	women	woman	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **pass** | past | Chief | a law |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme law=Trajectory |
| 2 | **not** **eat** | should | women | a law |  |  |  | animals *obj* | tree rules |
| 3 | **kill** | participle |  | animals *not said here* |  | hunting |  | by the men | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **not** **eat** | should | the men | the fish |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fish=Patient |
| 5 | **catch** | participle |  | the fish *not said here* |  |  |  | by the women | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .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 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/26/8/)
- next →: [sentence 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/26/10/)
- ↑ back to [Xxxi.--chief Kekong’s Daughter ’ndere Who Married a Python., part 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/26/)