---
title: He said to the cannibals: “You can take which one of these oxen you… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: He said to the cannibals: “You can take which one of these oxen you like instead of me.” Who acts: One, cannibals. 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/pg71335/10/297/)

<!-- 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/) / 297

# Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Hlakanyana., sentence 297

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He said to the cannibals: “You can take which one of these oxen you like instead of me.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** One, cannibals · **What happens:** say, take, like · **To what, where:** cannibals, one, oxen · **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 (One, cannibals), 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:pg71335:10:297
# text = He said to the cannibals: “You can take which one of these oxen you like instead of me.”
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	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	cannibals	cannibal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	10	punct	_	_
7	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	You	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	take	take	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
11	which	which	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	12	det	_	_
12	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	these	this	DET	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	15	det	_	_
15	oxen	ox	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nmod	_	_
16	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	like	like	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	15	acl:relcl	_	_
18	instead	instead	ADV	RB	ExtPos=ADP	20	case	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	fixed	_	_
20	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | One |  | the cannibals |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to cannibal=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 2 | **take** *in a quote* | can | the cannibals *= cannibal* | which one of this oxen |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Theme |
| 3 | **like** *in a quote* | present | the cannibals *= cannibal* | this oxen *not said here* |  |  |  | instead One | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot ox=Theme |

<!-- .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 296](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/10/296/)
- next →: [sentence 298](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/10/298/)
- ↑ back to [The Story of Hlakanyana.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/10/)