---
title: They were not only told by natives, but were copied down by natives. — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: They were not only told by natives, but were copied down by natives. Who acts: natives. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Opening, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, Opening, sentence 36

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They were not only told by natives, but were copied down by natives.

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**Who acts:** natives · **What happens:** not tell, copy down · **To what, where:** Tales · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Opening. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (natives), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg71335:1:36
# text = They were not only told by natives, but were copied down by natives.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux:pass	_	_
3	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	5	advmod	_	_
4	only	only	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	_
5	told	tell	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	natives	native	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	copied	copy	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	5	conj	_	_
12	down	down	ADP	RP	_	11	compound:prt	_	_
13	by	by	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	natives	native	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **tell** *speech: assert* | past · passive | natives | Tales *= tale* |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent subject=Recipient |
| 2 | **copy down** | past · passive | natives |  |  |  |  |  | vn scribble-25.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |

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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:** «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Project Gutenberg book 71335 (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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