---
title: The tortoise let go quickly, and the fat fell on Hlakanyana and burn… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: The tortoise let go quickly, and the fat fell on Hlakanyana and burnt him, so that he died. Who acts: tortoise, fat. 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 432

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The tortoise let go quickly, and the fat fell on Hlakanyana and burnt him, so that he died.

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**Who acts:** tortoise, fat · **What happens:** let, go, fall, burnt, die · **To what, where:** Hlakanyana, tortoise

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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 (tortoise, fat), 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:pg71335:10:432
# text = The tortoise let go quickly, and the fat fell on Hlakanyana and burnt him, so that he died.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	tortoise	tortoise	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	let	let	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
5	quickly	quickly	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	fat	fat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
11	on	on	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	Hlakanyana	Hlakanyana	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
14	burnt	burnt	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
15	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	20	punct	_	_
17	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	20	mark	_	_
18	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	17	fixed	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	20	nsubj	_	_
20	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **let** | past | the tortoise |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **go** | infinitive | the tortoise *not said here* |  |  |  |  | quickly *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **fall** | past | the fat |  |  | Hlakanyana |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on hlakanyana=Location |
| 4 | **burnt** | past | the fat *not said here* | tortoise |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 5 | **die** | past | Fat |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |

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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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- ↑ back to [The Story of Hlakanyana.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/10/)