---
title: The elder one said: “How can you say such a thing? — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: The elder one said: “How can you say such a thing? Who acts: elder one, you. 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 169

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The elder one said: “How can you say such a thing?

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**Who acts:** elder one, you · **What happens:** say · **To what, where:** thing · **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 (elder one, you), 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:pg71335:10:169
# text = The elder one said: “How can you say such a thing?
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	elder	elder	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
6	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	How	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	10	advmod	_	_
8	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
11	such	such	DET	PDT	PronType=Ind	13	det:predet	_	_
12	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	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 | the elder one |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | can | you | such thing |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent thing=Topic |

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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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