---
title: That very night they held a big play, and the heads of all the men w… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: That very night they held a big play, and the heads of all the men who had been killed were placed before the ju-ju. Who acts: women. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inkum and Enfitop., with its dependency tree and the
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/7/54/)

<!-- 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/) / [Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inku…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/7/) / 54

# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inkum and Enfitop., sentence 54

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
That very night they held a big play, and the heads of all the men who had been killed were placed before the ju-ju.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** women · **What happens:** hold, kill, place · **To what, where:** big play, men, heads, ju ju

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inkum and Enfitop.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (women), 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:pg70959:7:54
# text = That very night they held a big play, and the heads of all the men who had been killed were placed before the ju-ju.
1	That	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
2	very	very	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
3	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl:unmarked	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	held	hold	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	big	big	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	play	play	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	heads	head	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
14	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	16	det:predet	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	_
17	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
19	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	20	aux:pass	_	_
20	killed	kill	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	acl:relcl	_	_
21	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	22	aux:pass	_	_
22	placed	place	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
23	before	before	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	27	det	_	_
25	ju	ju	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	ju	ju	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hold** | past | women *= woman* | a big play |  |  | night |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent play=Theme |
| 2 | **kill** | past · perfect · passive |  | all men |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 3 | **place** | past · passive |  | the heads of all men |  | the ju ju |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme before ju=Destination |

<!-- .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 53](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/7/53/)
- next →: [sentence 55](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/7/55/)
- ↑ back to [Ix.--the Story of the War Between Inkum and Enfitop.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/7/)