---
title: So he tried to imitate Demane’s voice, and asked to be admitted, sin… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: So he tried to imitate Demane’s voice, and asked to be admitted, singing this song:— Who acts: door. 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 8

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So he tried to imitate Demane’s voice, and asked to be admitted, singing this song:—

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**Who acts:** door · **What happens:** try, imitate, ask, admit, sing · **To what, where:** voice, song · **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 (door), 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:pg71335:11:8
# text = So he tried to imitate Demane’s voice, and asked to be admitted, singing this song:—
1	So	so	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	to	to	PART	TO	_	5	mark	_	_
5	imitate	imitate	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	xcomp	_	_
6	Demane	Demane	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	’s	's	PART	POS	_	6	case	_	_
8	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	asked	ask	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
12	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
13	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	admitted	admit	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	11	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
16	singing	sing	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
17	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	det	_	_
18	song	song	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **try** | past | door |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 2 | **imitate** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | door *not said here* | Demane's voice |  |  |  |  | vn patent-101 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent voice=Theme |
| 3 | **ask** *speech: ask* | past | door *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **admit** *speech: other* *not said to happen* | to-infinitive · passive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn confess-37.10 «NP V how S» |
| 5 | **sing** *speech: express* | gerund |  | this song |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location song=Theme |

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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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