---
title: In Okuni, a long time ago, there dwelt a chief called ’Ndabu. — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: In Okuni, a long time ago, there dwelt a chief called ’Ndabu. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xii.--concerning the Okuni Witches and Cannibalism., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xii.--concerning the Okuni Witches and Cannibalism., sentence 1

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In Okuni, a long time ago, there dwelt a chief called ’Ndabu.

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**What happens:** dwell, call · **To what, where:** chief, Okuni · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xii.--concerning the Okuni Witches and Cannibalism.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: 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:pg70959:9:1
# text = In Okuni, a long time ago, there dwelt a chief called ’Ndabu.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	Okuni	Okuni	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	appos	_	_
7	ago	ago	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
9	there	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	10	expl	_	_
10	dwelt	dwell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	12	acl	_	_
14	’	'	PUNCT	NFP	_	15	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	Ndabu	Ndabu	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dwell** | past |  | a chief |  | Okuni; there |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme chief=Location |
| 2 | **call** | participle |  | a chief *not said here* |  |  |  | Ndabu *xcomp* | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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