---
title: When he saw that he was bigger than the fish, he said, “They cannot… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: When he saw that he was bigger than the fish, he said, “They cannot eat me,” and without much fear jumped into the water and began to swim across. Who acts: friend, bits. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxii.--a Story of the Great Famine., with its dep
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/16/21/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/) / [Xxii.--a Story of the Great Famine.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/16/) / 21

# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Xxii.--a Story of the Great Famine., sentence 21

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When he saw that he was bigger than the fish, he said, “They cannot eat me,” and without much fear jumped into the water and began to swim across.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** friend, bits · **What happens:** see, be, say, not eat, jump, begin · **To what, where:** friend, water · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Xxii.--a Story of the Great Famine.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (friend, bits), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg70959:16:21
# text = When he saw that he was bigger than the fish, he said, “They cannot eat me,” and without much fear jumped into the water and began to swim across.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
5	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	bigger	big	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	xcomp	_	_
8	than	than	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	fish	fish	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
15	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
20	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	19	punct	_	_
23	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
24	without	without	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	much	much	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	26	amod	_	_
26	fear	fear	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
27	jumped	jump	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
28	into	into	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
29	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	27	obl	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	32	cc	_	_
32	began	begin	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	conj	_	_
33	to	to	PART	TO	_	34	mark	_	_
34	swim	swim	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	32	xcomp	_	_
35	across	across	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | friend |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is** | past | friend |  |  |  |  | than the fish; big *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | friend |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **not** **eat** *in a quote* | can | bits *= bit* | friend |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Patient |
| 5 | **jump** | past | friend *not said here* |  |  |  |  | into the water *result*; without much fear | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme into water=Result |
| 6 | **begin** | past | friend *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 7 | **swim** | to-infinitive | friend *not said here* |  |  |  |  | across *property* | vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/16/20/)
- next →: [sentence 22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/16/22/)
- ↑ back to [Xxii.--a Story of the Great Famine.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/16/)