---
title: He said to them: “You foolish fellows, you only sit here and eat not… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: He said to them: “You foolish fellows, you only sit here and eat nothing. Who acts: Hlakanyana, keepers. 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 224

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He said to them: “You foolish fellows, you only sit here and eat nothing.

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**Who acts:** Hlakanyana, keepers · **What happens:** say, fellow, sit, eat · **To what, where:** keepers, nothing · **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 (Hlakanyana, keepers), 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:pg71335:10:224
# text = He said to them: “You foolish fellows, you only sit here and eat nothing.
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	:	_	9	punct	_	_
6	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	foolish	foolish	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	fellows	fellow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	only	only	ADV	RB	_	13	advmod	_	_
13	sit	sit	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
14	here	here	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	13	advmod	_	_
15	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
16	eat	eat	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
17	nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	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 | Hlakanyana |  | keepers *= keeper* |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to they=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **fellow** *in a quote* |  | keepers *= keeper* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **sit** *in a quote* | present | keepers *= keeper* |  |  | here |  |  | vn assuming\_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **eat** *in a quote* | present | keepers *= keeper* *not said here* | nothing |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=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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