---
title: The girl would have been quite safe if she had done as her brother c… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: The girl would have been quite safe if she had done as her brother commanded. Who acts: girl, brother. 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 5

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The girl would have been quite safe if she had done as her brother commanded.

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**Who acts:** girl, brother · **What happens:** be, do, command · **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 (girl, brother), 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:pg71335:11:5
# text = The girl would have been quite safe if she had done as her brother commanded.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
4	have	have	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	aux	_	_
5	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	cop	_	_
6	quite	quite	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	safe	safe	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
8	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
9	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
10	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	done	do	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
12	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	15	mark	_	_
13	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	brother	brother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	commanded	command	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | would · perfect | the girl |  |  |  |  | safe *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **do** *a condition, not said to happen* | past · perfect | girl |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **command** | past | girl's brother |  |  |  |  |  | vn supervision-95.2.2-1 «NP V NP.predicate»: agent=Agent |

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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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