---
title: During the night, Chief Elullo turned himself into a witch-bird (the… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: During the night, Chief Elullo turned himself into a witch-bird (the owl) and went to ’Ndabu’s house, where he called the boy whom he had witched. Who acts: Chief. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xii.--concerning the Okuni Witches and Cannibalism., wit
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xii.--concerning the Okuni Witches and Cannibalism., sentence 45

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During the night, Chief Elullo turned himself into a witch-bird (the owl) and went to ’Ndabu’s house, where he called the boy whom he had witched.

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**Who acts:** Chief · **What happens:** turn, go, ', call, witch · **To what, where:** chief, house, boy · **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: who acts (Chief), 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:pg70959:9:45
# text = During the night, Chief Elullo turned himself into a witch-bird (the owl) and went to ’Ndabu’s house, where he called the boy whom he had witched.
1	During	during	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	night	night	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	Chief	Chief	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
6	Elullo	Elullo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	flat	_	_
7	turned	turn	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	himself	himself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	7	obj	_	_
9	into	into	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
11	witch	witch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
14	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	owl	owl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	16	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	19	cc	_	_
19	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
20	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	’	'	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	19	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	Ndabu	Ndabu	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	’s	's	PART	POS	_	22	case	_	_
24	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
26	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	28	advmod	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
28	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	24	acl:relcl	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
31	whom	whom	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	34	obj	_	_
32	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	34	nsubj	_	_
33	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	34	aux	_	_
34	witched	witch	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	30	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | past | Chief | chief |  |  | night | into a witch bird *result* | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent himself=Theme into bird=Result |
| 2 | **go** | past | Chief *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **'** | infinitive | Chief *not said here* | Ndabu's house |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **call** | past | chief |  | the boy |  |  |  | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent boy=Recipient |
| 5 | **witch** | past · perfect | chief | the boy |  |  |  |  | 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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