---
title: Inkang then said, “We must hide the boy in the house until he grows… — Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria · tree and pragmatics
description: Inkang then said, “We must hide the boy in the house until he grows up, so that the people will not know what we have got.” Who acts: Inkang, We, boy, people. A sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched She
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/4/100/)

<!-- 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/) / [Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tor…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/4/) / 100

# Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell., sentence 100

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Inkang then said, “We must hide the boy in the house until he grows up, so that the people will not know what we have got.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Inkang, We, boy, people · **What happens:** say, hide, grow up, not know, get · **To what, where:** boy, house · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Inkang, We, boy, people), 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:pg70959:4:101
# text = Inkang then said, “We must hide the boy in the house until he grows up, so that the people will not know what we have got.”
1	Inkang	Inkang	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
7	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
8	hide	hide	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	in	in	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
14	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	grows	grow	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	advcl	_	_
17	up	up	ADP	RP	_	16	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
19	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	25	mark	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	19	fixed	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	25	nsubj	_	_
23	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	25	advmod	_	_
25	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	conj	_	_
26	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	29	obj	_	_
27	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
28	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	got	get	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	25	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Inkang |  |  |  | then |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **hide** *in a quote* | must | We | the boy |  | the house |  |  | vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent boy=Patient in house=Location |
| 3 | **grow up** *in a quote* | present | boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **know** *in a quote* | future | the people |  |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 5 | **get** *in a quote* | present · perfect | we |  |  |  |  | what *obj* | vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus |

<!-- .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 99](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/4/99/)
- next →: [sentence 101](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/4/101/)
- ↑ back to [Ii.--the Cunning Hare; Or, Why the Tortoise Has a Patched Shell.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/4/)