---
title: He said to them: “Why are you eating meat while the enemy is going a… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: He said to them: “Why are you eating meat while the enemy is going away with the cattle? Who acts: Hlakanyana, men, enemy. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Hlakanyana., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Hlakanyana., sentence 104

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He said to them: “Why are you eating meat while the enemy is going away with the cattle?

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**Who acts:** Hlakanyana, men, enemy · **What happens:** say, eat, go away · **To what, where:** men, meat · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Hlakanyana.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Hlakanyana, men, enemy), 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:pg71335:10:104
# text = He said to them: “Why are you eating meat while the enemy is going away with the cattle?
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
4	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
6	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
8	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	eating	eat	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	_
11	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
12	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	enemy	enemy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
15	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
17	away	away	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
19	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
20	cattle	cattle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | Hlakanyana |  | men *= man* |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to they=Recipient |
| 2 | **eat** *in a quote* | present · progressive | men *= man* | meat |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meat=Patient |
| 3 | **go away** *in a quote* | present · progressive | the enemy |  |  |  |  | with the cattle; away *property* | vn help-72.1-2 «NP V PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent with cattle=Beneficiary |

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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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