---
title: Amoru told Nkanyan that when the time came he would hide under one o… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: Amoru told Nkanyan that when the time came he would hide under one of the beds, but the witches would run outside, and could be easily distinguished from the other people, as they would be all naked. Who acts: Amoru, time, witches, people. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by E
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xii.--concerning the Okuni Witches and Cannibalism., sentence 75

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Amoru told Nkanyan that when the time came he would hide under one of the beds, but the witches would run outside, and could be easily distinguished from the other people, as they would be all naked.

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**Who acts:** Amoru, time, witches, people · **What happens:** tell, come, hide, run, distinguish, be · **To what, where:** Nkanyan · **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 (Amoru, time, witches, people), 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:pg70959:9:75
# text = Amoru told Nkanyan that when the time came he would hide under one of the beds, but the witches would run outside, and could be easily distinguished from the other people, as they would be all naked.
1	Amoru	Amoru	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	Nkanyan	Nkanyan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	iobj	_	_
4	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	3	dep	_	_
5	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	8	mark	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	ccomp	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	hide	hide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	advcl	_	_
12	under	under	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	11	obl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	beds	bed	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	witches	witch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	22	nsubj	_	_
21	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
22	run	run	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	conj	_	_
23	outside	outside	ADV	RB	_	22	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
25	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
26	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
27	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	29	aux:pass	_	_
28	easily	easily	ADV	RB	_	29	advmod	_	_
29	distinguished	distinguish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	parataxis	_	_
30	from	from	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	33	det	_	_
32	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	33	amod	_	_
33	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
34	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	40	punct	_	_
35	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	40	mark	_	_
36	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	40	nsubj	_	_
37	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	40	aux	_	_
38	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	40	cop	_	_
39	all	all	ADV	RB	_	40	advmod	_	_
40	naked	naked	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	29	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | Amoru |  | Nkanyan  that |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent nkanyan=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **come** | past | the time |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **hide** | would | Amoru |  |  |  |  | under one of the beds | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent under one=Location |
| 4 | **run** | would | the witches |  |  |  |  | outside *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **distinguish** | could · passive |  |  |  |  |  | from the other people; easily *property* | vn distinguish-23.5-1 «NP V NP.theme PP.co-theme»: from people=Co-Theme |
| 6 | **is** | would | people |  |  |  |  | all, naked *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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