---
title: He was afraid to tell what his desire was, lest the other cannibal s… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: He was afraid to tell what his desire was, lest the other cannibal should want a share of the girl. Who acts: smelt, desire, other cannibal. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Demane and Demazana., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Demane and Demazana., sentence 17

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He was afraid to tell what his desire was, lest the other cannibal should want a share of the girl.

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**Who acts:** smelt, desire, other cannibal · **What happens:** be, tell, want, desire, share · **To what, where:** share, girl · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Demane and Demazana.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (smelt, desire, other cannibal), 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:pg71335:11:17
# text = He was afraid to tell what his desire was, lest the other cannibal should want a share of the girl.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	afraid	afraid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	ccomp	_	_
7	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	desire	desire	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
11	lest	lest	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	14	amod	_	_
14	cannibal	cannibal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	_
15	should	should	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	want	want	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	conj	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	share	share	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | smelt |  |  |  |  | afraid *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | to-infinitive | smelt *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is a** | past | smelt's desire |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **want** | should | the other cannibal | a share of the girl |  |  |  |  | vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot share=Theme |
| 5 | **desire** |  | smelt |  |  |  |  |  | nom desire «feeling transitive»: poss=agent |
| 6 | **share** |  |  | the girl |  |  |  |  | nom share «possession transitive»: of=patient |

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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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