Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxiii.--why Edidor Killed Her Husband and Her Lover., sentence 61

The chiefs then said that for the future, whenever a man had a poison ju-ju or other powerful medicine, he should not tell any of his wives or any other women, because if they wished to run away from their husbands they would first of all break their ju-jus and then poison them.

Who acts: chiefs, man, poison, chief, men · What happens: say, have, ju, not tell, wish, run away · To what, where: any, ju jus, men · Speech: someone speaks here

This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxiii.--why Edidor Killed Her Husband and Her Lover.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (chiefs, man, poison, chief), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

Mova's own parse. This tree may be wrong.

The tree

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 chiefs	det
2	chiefs	chief	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 said	nsubj
3	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	4 said	advmod
4	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	that	that	SCONJ	_	8 future	mark
6	for	for	ADP	_	8 future	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 future	det
8	future	future	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 said	ccomp
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 had	punct
10	whenever	whenever	ADV	PronType=Rel	13 had	advmod
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 man	det
12	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 had	nsubj
13	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 said	conj
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 ju	det
15	poison	poison	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 ju	nsubj
16	ju	ju	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 ju	compound
17	-	-	PUNCT	_	18 ju	punct
18	ju	ju	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 had	obj
19	or	or	CCONJ	_	22 medicine	cc
20	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	22 medicine	amod
21	powerful	powerful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	22 medicine	amod
22	medicine	medicine	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 ju	conj
23	,	,	PUNCT	_	27 tell	punct
24	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	27 tell	nsubj
25	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	27 tell	aux
26	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	27 tell	advmod
27	tell	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	13 had	conj
28	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	27 tell	obj
29	of	of	ADP	_	31 wives	case
30	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	31 wives	nmod:poss
31	wives	wife	NOUN	Number=Plur	28 any	nmod
32	or	or	CCONJ	_	35 women	cc
33	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	35 women	det
34	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	35 women	amod
35	women	woman	NOUN	Number=Plur	31 wives	conj
36	,	,	PUNCT	_	40 wished	punct
37	because	because	SCONJ	_	40 wished	mark
38	if	if	SCONJ	_	40 wished	mark
39	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	40 wished	nsubj
40	wished	wish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	27 tell	conj
41	to	to	PART	_	42 run	mark
42	run	run	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	40 wished	xcomp
43	away	away	ADV	_	42 run	advmod
44	from	from	ADP	_	46 husbands	case
45	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	46 husbands	nmod:poss
46	husbands	husband	NOUN	Number=Plur	42 run	obl
47	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	52 break	nsubj
48	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	52 break	aux
49	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	52 break	advmod
50	of	of	SCONJ	_	52 break	mark
51	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	52 break	advmod
52	break	break	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	46 husbands	acl:relcl
53	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	56 jus	nmod:poss
54	ju	ju	NOUN	Number=Sing	56 jus	compound
55	-	-	PUNCT	_	54 ju	punct
56	jus	jus	NOUN	Number=Sing	52 break	obj
57	and	and	CCONJ	_	59 poison	cc
58	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	59 poison	advmod
59	poison	poison	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	52 break	conj
60	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	59 poison	obj
61	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 said	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	past	the chiefs		then	the future ccomp	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
2	have	past	a man			whenever property	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	ju		poison			other powerful medicine conj	tree rules
4	not tell speech: assert	should	chief	any of chief's wives or any other women			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent any=Recipient
5	wish	past	men = man				vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
6	run away not said to happen	to-infinitive	men = man not said here			from men's husbands; away property	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from husband=Trajectory
7	break	would	men = man	men's ju jus		first property	vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer jus=Patient
8	poison	infinitive	men = man not said here	men = man	then		vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient

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.

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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🌲 Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxiii.--why Edidor Killed Her Husband and Her Lover., sentence 61

The tree

Pragmatics

Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxiii.--why Edidor Killed Her Husband and Her Lover., sentence 61