---
title: They saw the footprints of Hlakanyana, and said: “This is a little b… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: They saw the footprints of Hlakanyana, and said: “This is a little boy that is stealing our birds.” Who acts: owners, This, little boy. 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 290

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They saw the footprints of Hlakanyana, and said: “This is a little boy that is stealing our birds.”

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**Who acts:** owners, This, little boy · **What happens:** see, say, be, steal · **To what, where:** footprints, little boy, birds · **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 (owners, This, little boy), 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:pg71335:10:290
# text = They saw the footprints of Hlakanyana, and said: “This is a little boy that is stealing our birds.”
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	footprints	footprint	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	Hlakanyana	Hlakanyana	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	9	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	16	nsubj	_	_
13	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	16	cop	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
15	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	ccomp	_	_
17	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	19	nsubj	_	_
18	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	stealing	steal	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	acl:relcl	_	_
20	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **see** | past | owners *= owner* | the footprints of Hlakanyana |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer footprint=Stimulus |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | owners *= owner* *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** *in a quote* | present | This | a little boy |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **steal** *in a quote* | present · progressive | a little boy | our birds |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location bird=Theme |

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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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- ↑ back to [The Story of Hlakanyana.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/10/)