---
title: Once in a time of famine a woman left her home and went to live in a… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: Once in a time of famine a woman left her home and went to live in a distant village, where she became a cannibal. Who acts: woman. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Runaway Children; Or, the Wonderful Feather., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, The Runaway Children; Or, the Wonderful Feather., sentence 1

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Once in a time of famine a woman left her home and went to live in a distant village, where she became a cannibal.

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**Who acts:** woman · **What happens:** leave, go, live, become · **To what, where:** home, distant village, cannibal

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This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Runaway Children; Or, the Wonderful Feather.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (woman), 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:pg71335:12:1
# text = Once in a time of famine a woman left her home and went to live in a distant village, where she became a cannibal.
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	9	advmod	_	_
2	in	in	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	famine	famine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
9	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
10	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	conj	_	_
14	to	to	PART	TO	_	15	mark	_	_
15	live	live	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	xcomp	_	_
16	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	distant	distant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	village	village	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
21	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	23	advmod	_	_
22	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
23	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	acl:relcl	_	_
24	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	cannibal	cannibal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **leave** | past | a woman | woman's home |  |  | time | once *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent home=Theme |
| 2 | **go** | past | a woman *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **live** | to-infinitive | a woman *not said here* |  |  | a distant village |  |  | vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in village=Location |
| 4 | **become** | past | woman | a cannibal |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=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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