---
title: Nomagoda came to the tree and commenced to cut it down; but when a c… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: Nomagoda came to the tree and commenced to cut it down; but when a chip fell out, a bird (Ntengu) sang— Who acts: Nomagoda, chip, bird. 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 clau
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, The Runaway Children; Or, the Wonderful Feather., sentence 40

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Nomagoda came to the tree and commenced to cut it down; but when a chip fell out, a bird (Ntengu) sang—

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**Who acts:** Nomagoda, chip, bird · **What happens:** come, commence, cut down, fall out, sing · **To what, where:** tree

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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, chip, bird), 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:pg71335:12:40
# text = Nomagoda came to the tree and commenced to cut it down; but when a chip fell out, a bird (Ntengu) sang—
1	Nomagoda	Nomagoda	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
2	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	commenced	commence	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	cut	cut	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	down	down	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	25	cc	_	_
14	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	17	advmod	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	chip	chip	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
17	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	25	advcl	_	_
18	out	out	ADP	RP	_	17	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
20	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
21	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	25	nsubj	_	_
22	(	(	PUNCT	-LRB-	_	23	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	Ntengu	Ntengu	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	21	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	)	)	PUNCT	-RRB-	_	23	punct	_	_
25	sang	sing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	—	-	PUNCT	:	_	25	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | Nomagoda |  |  | the tree |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to tree=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **commence** | participle | Nomagoda *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 3 | **cut down** | to-infinitive | Nomagoda *not said here* | tree |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset it=Product |
| 4 | **fall out** | past | a chip |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **sing** *speech: express* | past | a bird |  |  |  |  |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=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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