---
title: So at last he made up his mind to tell his eldest brother, whose nam… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: So at last he made up his mind to tell his eldest brother, whose name was Nkanyan, all about the witches and the difficulty he was in. Who acts: man, name, Nkanyan. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xii.--concerning the Okuni Witches and Cannibalism., wi
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xii.--concerning the Okuni Witches and Cannibalism., sentence 66

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So at last he made up his mind to tell his eldest brother, whose name was Nkanyan, all about the witches and the difficulty he was in.

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**Who acts:** man, name, Nkanyan · **What happens:** make up, tell, be, mind, name · **To what, where:** mind, last, eldest brother, Nkanyan, difficulty · **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 (man, name, Nkanyan), 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:pg70959:9:66
# text = So at last he made up his mind to tell his eldest brother, whose name was Nkanyan, all about the witches and the difficulty he was in.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
2	at	at	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
3	last	last	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	up	up	ADP	RP	_	5	compound:prt	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	mind	mind	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	advcl	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
12	eldest	eld	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	13	amod	_	_
13	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	Nkanyan	Nkanyan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	all	all	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
21	about	about	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	witches	witch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obl	_	_
24	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	26	cc	_	_
25	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	26	det	_	_
26	difficulty	difficulty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	conj	_	_
27	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	cop	_	_
29	in	in	ADV	RB	_	26	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make up** | past | man | man's mind |  | last |  |  | vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme mind=Pivot |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | man *not said here* |  | man's eldest brother |  |  | about the witches and the difficulty | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_ING»: agent=Agent brother=Recipient about witch=Topic |
| 3 | **is a** | past | Nkanyan's name | Nkanyan |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **is** | past | man | the difficulty *not said here* |  |  |  | in *property* | tree rules |
| 5 | **mind** |  | man |  |  |  |  |  | nom mind «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |
| 6 | **name** |  | Nkanyan |  |  |  |  |  | nom name «communication transitive»: poss=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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