---
title: As soon as it was day, the cannibal pursued the children. — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: As soon as it was day, the cannibal pursued the children. Who acts: Axe, cannibal. 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 37

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As soon as it was day, the cannibal pursued the children.

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**Who acts:** Axe, cannibal · **What happens:** be, pursue · **To what, where:** children

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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 (Axe, cannibal), 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:pg71335:12:37
# text = As soon as it was day, the cannibal pursued the children.
1	As	as	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
2	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	10	advmod	_	_
3	as	as	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	cannibal	cannibal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
10	pursued	pursue	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Axe |  |  |  | as day |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **pursue** | past | the cannibal | the children |  |  |  | soon *property* | vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=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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