---
title: The men said: “Tell us who did it.” — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: The men said: “Tell us who did it.” Who acts: men. 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 129

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The men said: “Tell us who did it.”

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**Who acts:** men · **What happens:** say, tell, do · **To what, where:** us, 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 (men), 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:pg71335:10:129
# text = The men said: “Tell us who did it.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	6	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	Tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
7	us	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	6	iobj	_	_
8	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	9	nsubj	_	_
9	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	ccomp	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the men |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  | us |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP what S»: agent=Agent we=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **do** *in a quote* | past |  | meat |  |  |  | who *nsubj* | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality |

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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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