---
title: It was a boy, but in size very little, and with a face that looked l… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: It was a boy, but in size very little, and with a face that looked like that of an old person. Who acts: birth, face. 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 19

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It was a boy, but in size very little, and with a face that looked like that of an old person.

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**Who acts:** birth, face · **What happens:** be, look · **To what, where:** boy

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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 (birth, face), 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:pg71335:10:19
# text = It was a boy, but in size very little, and with a face that looked like that of an old person.
1	It	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
6	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	size	size	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	appos	_	_
9	very	very	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	face	face	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
16	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	17	nsubj	_	_
17	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
18	like	like	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	that	that	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	17	obl	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
21	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
22	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	amod	_	_
23	person	person	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | birth | a boy |  |  |  | with a face; size *appos* | tree rules |
| 2 | **look** | past | a face |  |  |  |  | like a face | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |

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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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