---
title: The monkey denied, and said: “I don’t know anything about it. — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: The monkey denied, and said: “I don’t know anything about it. Who acts: monkey. 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 390

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The monkey denied, and said: “I don’t know anything about it.

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**Who acts:** monkey · **What happens:** deny, say, not know · **To what, where:** monkey, anything · **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 (monkey), 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:pg71335:10:390
# text = The monkey denied, and said: “I don’t know anything about it.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	monkey	monkey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	denied	deny	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
6	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	12	punct	_	_
8	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
10	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	12	advmod	_	_
12	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	ccomp	_	_
13	anything	anything	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Ind	12	obj	_	_
14	about	about	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **deny** | participle |  | the monkey *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the monkey |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **not** **know** *in a quote* | present · do-support | the monkey *= monkey* | anything |  |  |  | about branch | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer anything=Stimulus |

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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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