---
title: When Nomagoda awoke, she took the axe and went to kill them, but the… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: When Nomagoda awoke, she took the axe and went to kill them, but the axe fell on the blocks of wood. Who acts: Nomagoda, axe. 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 36

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When Nomagoda awoke, she took the axe and went to kill them, but the axe fell on the blocks of wood.

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**Who acts:** Nomagoda, axe · **What happens:** awake, take, go, kill, fall · **To what, where:** axe, children, blocks

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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 (Nomagoda, axe), 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:pg71335:12:36
# text = When Nomagoda awoke, she took the axe and went to kill them, but the axe fell on the blocks of wood.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	Nomagoda	Nomagoda	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	awoke	awake	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
6	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	axe	axe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
13	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	axe	axe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
19	on	on	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	blocks	block	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	23	case	_	_
23	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **awake** | past | Nomagoda |  |  |  |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **take** | past | Nomagoda | the axe |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent axe=Theme |
| 3 | **go** | past | Nomagoda *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **kill** | to-infinitive | Nomagoda *not said here* | children *= child* |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 5 | **fall** | past | the axe |  |  | the blocks of wood |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on block=Location |

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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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