---
title: So the chief cut off a piece of meat and gave it to him. — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: So the chief cut off a piece of meat and gave it to him. Who acts: chief. 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 39

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So the chief cut off a piece of meat and gave it to him.

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**Who acts:** chief · **What happens:** cut off, give · **To what, where:** piece, chief

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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), 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:pg71335:10:39
# text = So the chief cut off a piece of meat and gave it to him.
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	cut	cut	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	off	off	ADP	RP	_	4	compound:prt	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	piece	piece	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
9	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
12	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obj	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cut off** | participle | the chief | a piece of meat |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector piece=Eventuality |
| 2 | **give** | past | the chief *not said here* | piece | chief |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Theme to he=Recipient |

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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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