---
title: The voice said again: “Bear me, mother, as all my father’s cattle ar… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: The voice said again: “Bear me, mother, as all my father’s cattle are being finished, and I have not yet eaten anything of them.” Who acts: voice. 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 16

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The voice said again: “Bear me, mother, as all my father’s cattle are being finished, and I have not yet eaten anything of them.”

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**Who acts:** voice · **What happens:** say, bear, finish, not eat · **To what, where:** voice, cattle, anything · **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 (voice), 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:pg71335:10:16
# text = The voice said again: “Bear me, mother, as all my father’s cattle are being finished, and I have not yet eaten anything of them.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	again	again	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	7	punct	_	_
6	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	Bear	bear	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	_
8	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
10	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
12	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
13	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	15	det:predet	_	_
14	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	’s	's	PART	POS	_	15	case	_	_
17	cattle	cattle	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	20	nsubj:pass	_	_
18	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	20	aux:pass	_	_
19	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	20	aux:pass	_	_
20	finished	finish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	27	punct	_	_
22	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	27	cc	_	_
23	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	27	nsubj	_	_
24	have	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux	_	_
25	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	27	advmod	_	_
26	yet	yet	ADV	RB	_	27	advmod	_	_
27	eaten	eat	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	3	ccomp	_	_
28	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	27	obj	_	_
29	of	of	ADP	IN	_	30	case	_	_
30	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	27	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
32	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	27	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 voice |  |  |  | again |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **bear** *in a quote* | infinitive |  | the voice *= voice* |  |  |  | mother *conj* | vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Patient |
| 3 | **finish** *in a quote* | present · passive |  | my father's cattle |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: subject=Eventuality |
| 4 | **not** **eat** *in a quote* | present · perfect | the voice *= voice* | anything of cattle |  |  | yet |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Patient |

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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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