---
title: So when the dry season came round he told his favourite wife at nigh… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: So when the dry season came round he told his favourite wife at night time that he had arranged with a blacksmith to kill the boy. Who acts: dry season, head. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed., 
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed., sentence 47

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So when the dry season came round he told his favourite wife at night time that he had arranged with a blacksmith to kill the boy.

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**Who acts:** dry season, head · **What happens:** come round, tell, arrange, kill · **To what, where:** favourite wife, boy · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (dry season, head), 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:pg70959:8:47
# text = So when the dry season came round he told his favourite wife at night time that he had arranged with a blacksmith to kill the boy.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
2	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	6	mark	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	dry	dry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	season	season	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	advcl	_	_
7	round	round	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
9	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
11	favourite	favourite	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
13	at	at	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	compound	_	_
15	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
16	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
18	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	arranged	arrange	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	9	ccomp	_	_
20	with	with	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	blacksmith	blacksmith	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	obl	_	_
23	to	to	PART	TO	_	24	mark	_	_
24	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	advcl	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come round** | past | the dry season |  |  |  |  | round *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | head |  | head's favourite wife |  | time |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent wife=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **arrange** | past · perfect | head |  |  |  |  | with a blacksmith | vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with blacksmith=Instrument |
| 4 | **kill** | to-infinitive | head *not said here* | the boy |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent boy=Theme |

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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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