---
title: When they reached the house it was night time, so the chief went to… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: When they reached the house it was night time, so the chief went to bed and told Achor what had happened to his new wife. Who acts: DOGS, house, chief. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Iv.--how Elili of Inkum Died, and Was Brought Back to Life Again., w
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/5/82/)

<!-- 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/) / [Iv.--how Elili of Inkum Died, and Was…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/5/) / 82

# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Iv.--how Elili of Inkum Died, and Was Brought Back to Life Again., sentence 82

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When they reached the house it was night time, so the chief went to bed and told Achor what had happened to his new wife.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** DOGS, house, chief · **What happens:** reach, be, go, tell, happen · **To what, where:** house, night time, bed, Achor · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Iv.--how Elili of Inkum Died, and Was Brought Back to Life Again.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (DOGS, house, chief), 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:pg70959:5:82
# text = When they reached the house it was night time, so the chief went to bed and told Achor what had happened to his new wife.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	3	mark	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	reached	reach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	advcl	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	_
8	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	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	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
14	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
15	to	to	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	bed	bed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	_
19	Achor	Achor	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	18	iobj	_	_
20	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	22	nsubj	_	_
21	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	happened	happen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	18	ccomp	_	_
23	to	to	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
25	new	new	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **reach** | past | DOGS *= dog* | the house |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent house=Theme |
| 2 | **is a** | past | house | night time |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **go** | past | the chief |  |  | bed |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to bed=Initial\_Location |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the chief *not said here* |  | Achor |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent achor=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 5 | **happen** | past · perfect |  |  |  |  |  | to Chief's new wife; what *nsubj* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 81](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/5/81/)
- next →: [sentence 83](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/5/83/)
- ↑ back to [Iv.--how Elili of Inkum Died, and Was Brought Back to Life Again.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/5/)