---
title: The chief took a little stick, and said: “If you trouble me again, I… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: The chief took a little stick, and said: “If you trouble me again, I will strike you with this.” Who acts: chief, you. 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 30

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The chief took a little stick, and said: “If you trouble me again, I will strike you with this.”

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**Who acts:** chief, you · **What happens:** take, say, trouble, strike · **To what, where:** little stick, chief, you · **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 (chief, you), 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:pg71335:10:30
# text = The chief took a little stick, and said: “If you trouble me again, I will strike you with this.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	stick	stick	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	20	punct	_	_
11	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	If	if	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
13	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	trouble	trouble	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	advcl	_	_
15	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	again	again	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
18	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
19	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	20	aux	_	_
20	strike	strike	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	_
21	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	20	obj	_	_
22	with	with	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	20	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	20	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	20	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | the chief | a little stick |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stick=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the chief *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **trouble** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* |  | you | the chief *= chief* |  |  | again |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **strike** *in a quote* | future | the chief *= chief* | you |  |  |  | with this | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent you=Patient with this=Instrument |

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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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