---
title: In the evening Chief Osewo sent for the leopard and told him that he… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: In the evening Chief Osewo sent for the leopard and told him that he was going to send his son Agberamfe to him for ten days, and that during that time he must contrive to kill him by stealth and send the boy’s skin to him so that he might be quite sure that his son was dead at last. Who acts: Chief
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xi.--how a Father Tried to Kill One of His Sons But Failed., sentence 53

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In the evening Chief Osewo sent for the leopard and told him that he was going to send his son Agberamfe to him for ten days, and that during that time he must contrive to kill him by stealth and send the boy’s skin to him so that he might be quite sure that his son was dead at last.

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**Who acts:** Chief, leopard, that, son · **What happens:** send, tell, go, contrive, kill, be · **To what, where:** leopard, son, skin, last · **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 (Chief, leopard, that, son), 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:pg70959:8:53
# text = In the evening Chief Osewo sent for the leopard and told him that he was going to send his son Agberamfe to him for ten days, and that during that time he must contrive to kill him by stealth and send the boy’s skin to him so that he might be quite sure that his son was dead at last.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	evening	evening	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
4	Chief	Chief	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	Osewo	Osewo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	flat	_	_
6	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	for	for	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	leopard	leopard	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
12	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	iobj	_	_
13	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
14	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	11	ccomp	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	send	send	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	Agberamfe	Agberamfe	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	appos	_	_
22	to	to	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	_
24	for	for	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	ten	ten	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	26	nummod	_	_
26	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	35	punct	_	_
28	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	35	cc	_	_
29	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	35	nsubj:outer	_	_
30	during	during	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	32	det	_	_
32	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	obl	_	_
33	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	35	nsubj	_	_
34	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	35	aux	_	_
35	contrive	contrive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
36	to	to	PART	TO	_	37	mark	_	_
37	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	35	xcomp	_	_
38	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	37	obj	_	_
39	by	by	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
40	stealth	stealth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	42	cc	_	_
42	send	send	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	37	conj	_	_
43	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	44	det	_	_
44	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	46	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
45	’s	's	PART	POS	_	44	case	_	_
46	skin	skin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	42	obj	_	_
47	to	to	ADP	IN	_	48	case	_	_
48	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	42	obl	_	_
49	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	55	mark	_	_
50	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	49	fixed	_	_
51	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	55	nsubj	_	_
52	might	might	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	55	aux	_	_
53	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	55	cop	_	_
54	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	55	advmod	_	_
55	sure	sure	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	42	advcl	_	_
56	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	60	mark	_	_
57	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	58	nmod:poss	_	_
58	son	son	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	60	nsubj	_	_
59	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	60	cop	_	_
60	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	55	ccomp	_	_
61	at	at	ADP	IN	_	62	case	_	_
62	last	last	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	60	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
63	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **send** | past | Chief |  |  |  | evening | for the leopard | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Chief *not said here* |  | leopard |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **go** | past · progressive | leopard |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **send** | to-infinitive | leopard *not said here* | leopard's son | son |  | day |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent son=Theme to he=Destination |
| 5 | **contrive** | must | that |  |  |  | time | son *nsubj* | tree rules |
| 6 | **kill** | to-infinitive | that *not said here* | son |  |  |  | by stealth | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme |
| 7 | **send** | infinitive | that *not said here* | the boy's skin | son |  |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent skin=Theme to he=Destination |
| 8 | **is** | might | son |  |  |  |  | sure *property* | tree rules |
| 9 | **is** | past | son's son |  |  | last |  | dead *property* | tree rules |

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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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