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

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 · What happens: see, be, say, not eat, jump, begin · To what, where: friend, water · Speech: someone speaks here

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.

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	When	when	ADV	PronType=Int	3 saw	advmod
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 saw	nsubj
3	saw	see	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 said	advcl
4	that	that	SCONJ	_	7 bigger	mark
5	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 bigger	nsubj
6	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 bigger	cop
7	bigger	big	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	3 saw	xcomp
8	than	than	ADP	_	10 fish	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 fish	det
10	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 bigger	obl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 saw	punct
12	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 said	nsubj
13	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 eat	punct
15	“	"	PUNCT	_	19 eat	punct
16	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 eat	nsubj
17	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	19 eat	aux
18	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	19 eat	advmod
19	eat	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	13 said	ccomp
20	me	I	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Sing Person=1 PronType=Prs	19 eat	obj
21	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 eat	punct
22	”	"	PUNCT	_	19 eat	punct
23	and	and	CCONJ	_	27 jumped	cc
24	without	without	ADP	_	26 fear	case
25	much	much	ADJ	Degree=Pos	26 fear	amod
26	fear	fear	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 jumped	obl
27	jumped	jump	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 said	conj
28	into	into	ADP	_	30 water	case
29	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	30 water	det
30	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 jumped	obl
31	and	and	CCONJ	_	32 began	cc
32	began	begin	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	27 jumped	conj
33	to	to	PART	_	34 swim	mark
34	swim	swim	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	32 began	xcomp
35	across	across	ADV	_	34 swim	advmod
36	.	.	PUNCT	_	13 said	punct

Pragmatics

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	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

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.

This page in Markdown → 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

The tree

Pragmatics

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