---
title: He guessed what had happened, and followed the path by means of the… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: He guessed what had happened, and followed the path by means of the ashes until he came to Zim’s dwelling. Who acts: cave. 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.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/11/29/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Kaffir folk-lore](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/) / [The Story of Demane and Demazana.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/11/) / 29

# Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Demane and Demazana., sentence 29

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He guessed what had happened, and followed the path by means of the ashes until he came to Zim’s dwelling.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** cave · **What happens:** guess, happen, follow, mean, come · **To what, where:** path, dwelling · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (cave), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg71335:11:29
# text = He guessed what had happened, and followed the path by means of the ashes until he came to Zim’s dwelling.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	guessed	guess	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	5	nsubj	_	_
4	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	aux	_	_
5	happened	happen	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	2	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	followed	follow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	path	path	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	by	by	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	parataxis	_	_
13	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	ashes	ash	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	obl	_	_
16	until	until	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
17	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	ccomp	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	Zim	Zim	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	’s	's	PART	POS	_	20	case	_	_
22	dwelling	dwelling	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **guess** | past | cave |  |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **happen** | past · perfect |  |  |  |  |  | what *nsubj* | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **follow** | past | cave *not said here* | the path |  |  |  |  | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent path=Theme |
| 4 | **mean** | present |  |  |  |  |  | of the ashes | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 5 | **come** | past | cave |  |  | Zim's dwelling |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to dwelling=Initial\_Location |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/11/28/)
- next →: [sentence 30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/11/30/)
- ↑ back to [The Story of Demane and Demazana.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/11/)