---
title: The cannibal chopped till she was tired, but the feather continued t… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: The cannibal chopped till she was tired, but the feather continued to keep the tree from receiving harm. Who acts: cannibal, Ntengu, feather. 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 ever
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/12/48/)

<!-- 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/) / 48

# Kaffir folk-lore, The Runaway Children; Or, the Wonderful Feather., sentence 48

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The cannibal chopped till she was tired, but the feather continued to keep the tree from receiving harm.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** cannibal, Ntengu, feather · **What happens:** chop, be, continue, keep, receive · **To what, where:** tree, harm

<!-- .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 (cannibal, Ntengu, feather), 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:pg71335:12:48
# text = The cannibal chopped till she was tired, but the feather continued to keep the tree from receiving harm.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	cannibal	cannibal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	chopped	chop	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	till	till	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
5	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
6	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	tired	tired	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	feather	feather	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	continued	continue	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
17	from	from	SCONJ	IN	_	18	mark	_	_
18	receiving	receive	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	_
19	harm	harm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **chop** | past | the cannibal |  |  |  |  |  | vn carve-21.2-2 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **is** | past | Ntengu |  |  |  |  | tired *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **continue** | past | the feather |  |  |  |  |  | vn continue-55.3 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 4 | **keep** | to-infinitive | the feather *not said here* | the tree |  |  |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tree=Theme |
| 5 | **receive** | gerund | the feather *not said here* | harm |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent harm=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 47](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/12/47/)
- next →: [sentence 49](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/12/49/)
- ↑ back to [The Runaway Children; Or, the Wonderful Feather.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/12/)