---
title: The people then took the witches to the palaver house, and Chief ’Nd… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: The people then took the witches to the palaver house, and Chief ’Ndabu sent word to the other chiefs that they would be tried at once. Who acts: people, Ndabu. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xii.--concerning the Okuni Witches and Cannibalism., with i
---

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# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xii.--concerning the Okuni Witches and Cannibalism., sentence 84

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The people then took the witches to the palaver house, and Chief ’Ndabu sent word to the other chiefs that they would be tried at once.

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**Who acts:** people, Ndabu · **What happens:** take, send, try · **To what, where:** witches, palaver house, word, other chiefs, people

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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 (people, Ndabu), 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:pg70959:9:84
# text = The people then took the witches to the palaver house, and Chief ’Ndabu sent word to the other chiefs that they would be tried at once.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
3	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
4	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	witches	witch	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	palaver	palaver	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
10	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	Chief	Chief	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nmod:poss	_	_
14	’	's	PART	POS	_	13	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	Ndabu	Ndabu	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
16	sent	send	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
17	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
18	to	to	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	chiefs	chief	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	_
22	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	26	mark	_	_
23	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	26	nsubj	_	_
24	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	26	aux	_	_
25	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	26	aux:pass	_	_
26	tried	try	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	16	advcl	_	_
27	at	at	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
28	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	26	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | the people | the witches |  | the palaver house | then |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent witch=Theme to house=Destination |
| 2 | **send** | past | Chief's Ndabu | word |  | the other chiefs |  |  | vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent word=Theme to chief=Destination |
| 3 | **try** | would · passive |  | people |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality |

<!-- .note -->
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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