---
title: When he heard who they were, he was sorry for them, and told them th… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: When he heard who they were, he was sorry for them, and told them their aunt was a cannibal, giving them advice not to stay there. Who acts: Magoda, pots, aunt. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Runaway Children; Or, the Wonderful Feather., with its dependency tree and the
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/12/18/)

<!-- 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 Runaway Children; Or, the Wonderfu…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/12/) / 18

# Kaffir folk-lore, The Runaway Children; Or, the Wonderful Feather., sentence 18

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When he heard who they were, he was sorry for them, and told them their aunt was a cannibal, giving them advice not to stay there.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Magoda, pots, aunt · **What happens:** hear, be, tell, give, not stay · **To what, where:** pots, cannibal, advice · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (Magoda, pots, aunt), 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:pg71335:12:18
# text = When he heard who they were, he was sorry for them, and told them their aunt was a cannibal, giving them advice not to stay there.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	heard	hear	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
4	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	ccomp	_	_
5	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
6	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
8	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
9	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
10	sorry	sorry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
11	for	for	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	parataxis	_	_
16	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	iobj	_	_
17	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	aunt	aunt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	21	cop	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	cannibal	cannibal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
23	giving	give	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	15	advcl	_	_
24	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	iobj	_	_
25	advice	advice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obj	_	_
26	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	28	advmod	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	stay	stay	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	23	advcl	_	_
29	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	28	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **hear** | past | Magoda |  |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer |
| 2 | **is a** | past | pots *= pot* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **is** | past | Magoda |  |  |  |  | for pots *= pot*; sorry *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past |  |  | pots *= pot* |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent they=Recipient |
| 5 | **is a** | past | pots's aunt | a cannibal |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 6 | **give** | gerund |  | advice | pots *= pot* |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Recipient advice=Theme |
| 7 | **not** **stay** | to-infinitive |  |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- .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 17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/12/17/)
- next →: [sentence 19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/12/19/)
- ↑ back to [The Runaway Children; Or, the Wonderful Feather.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/12/)