---
title: The Kaffirs of South Africa tell them, and the modern Greeks, just a… — The Pink Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The Kaffirs of South Africa tell them, and the modern Greeks, just as the old Egyptians did, when Moses had not been many years rescued out of the bulrushes. Who acts: Kaffirs, old Egyptians, Moses. A sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 1, with its dependency 
---

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# The Pink Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, part 1, sentence 6

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The Kaffirs of South Africa tell them, and the modern Greeks, just as the old Egyptians did, when Moses had not been many years rescued out of the bulrushes.

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**Who acts:** Kaffirs, old Egyptians, Moses · **What happens:** tell, do, not be, rescue · **To what, where:** modern Greeks, tales, many years, bulrushes · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Pink Fairy Book, part 1. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Kaffirs, old Egyptians, Moses), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg5615:1:6
# text = The Kaffirs of South Africa tell them, and the modern Greeks, just as the old Egyptians did, when Moses had not been many years rescued out of the bulrushes.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Kaffirs	kaffir	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	South	South	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	Africa	Africa	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
6	tell	tell	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	modern	modern	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	Greeks	Greek	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	just	just	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
15	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
17	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	18	amod	_	_
18	Egyptians	Egyptian	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
19	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	parataxis	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	28	punct	_	_
21	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	28	advmod	_	_
22	Moses	Moses	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
23	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
24	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
25	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	27	cop	_	_
26	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	27	amod	_	_
27	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl:unmarked	_	_
28	rescued	rescue	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
29	out	out	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
30	of	of	ADP	IN	_	32	case	_	_
31	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	32	det	_	_
32	bulrushes	bulrush	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	28	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
33	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | present | the Kaffirs of South Africa | the modern Greeks | tales *= tale* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent they=Recipient |
| 2 | **do** | past | the old Egyptians |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **not** **is a** | participle |  | many years |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **rescue** | past | Moses |  |  | the bulrushes |  |  | vn steal-10.5 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent out bulrush=Source |

<!-- .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:** «The Pink Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 5615 (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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