---
title: He said to them: “Why do you not ask me to lend you this digging-sti… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: He said to them: “Why do you not ask me to lend you this digging-stick, instead of digging with your hands?” Who acts: Hlakanyana, people. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Hlakanyana., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/10/210/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Kaffir folk-lore](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/) / [The Story of Hlakanyana.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/10/) / 210

# Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Hlakanyana., sentence 210

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He said to them: “Why do you not ask me to lend you this digging-stick, instead of digging with your hands?”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Hlakanyana, people · **What happens:** say, not ask, lend, dig · **To what, where:** people, Hlakanyana, digging stick · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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, people), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg71335:10:210
# text = He said to them: “Why do you not ask me to lend you this digging-stick, instead of digging with your hands?”
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	:	_	11	punct	_	_
6	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
8	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
9	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	11	advmod	_	_
11	ask	ask	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
12	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	11	iobj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	lend	lend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	xcomp	_	_
15	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	19	det	_	_
17	digging	digging	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	stick	stick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=SCONJ	23	mark	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	fixed	_	_
23	digging	dig	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
24	with	with	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
25	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	26	nmod:poss	_	_
26	hands	hand	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | Hlakanyana |  | people |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to they=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **ask** *speech: ask* *in a quote* | present · do-support | people |  | Hlakanyana |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S\_INF»: agent=Agent i=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **lend** *not said to happen, in a quote* | to-infinitive | people *not said here* | this digging stick | people |  |  |  | vn give-13.1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent you=Recipient stick=Theme |
| 4 | **dig** *in a quote* | gerund | people *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with your hands | vn poke-19-1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with hand=Instrument |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 209](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/10/209/)
- next →: [sentence 211](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/10/211/)
- ↑ back to [The Story of Hlakanyana.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/10/)