---
title: The hyena wanted to come down, but he found his tail was fast. — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: The hyena wanted to come down, but he found his tail was fast. Who acts: hyena, Hlakanyana, tail. 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 324

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The hyena wanted to come down, but he found his tail was fast.

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**Who acts:** hyena, Hlakanyana, tail · **What happens:** want, come down, find, be · **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 (hyena, Hlakanyana, tail), 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:pg71335:10:324
# text = The hyena wanted to come down, but he found his tail was fast.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	hyena	hyena	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	wanted	want	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	come	come	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	down	down	ADV	RB	_	5	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
8	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
11	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	12	nmod:poss	_	_
12	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
14	fast	fast	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	10	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **want** | past | the hyena |  |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme |
| 2 | **come down** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the hyena *not said here* |  |  |  |  | down *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **find** | past | Hlakanyana |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** | past | Hlakanyana's tail |  |  |  |  | fast *property* | tree rules |

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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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