---
title: This was shortly before the cannibals agreed to kill and eat the dau… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: This was shortly before the cannibals agreed to kill and eat the daughter of their chief. Who acts: This, cannibals. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of Ironside and His Sister., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, Story of Ironside and His Sister., sentence 33

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This was shortly before the cannibals agreed to kill and eat the daughter of their chief.

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**Who acts:** This, cannibals · **What happens:** be, agree, kill, eat · **To what, where:** daughter

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This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of Ironside and His Sister.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (This, cannibals), 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:pg71335:13:33
# text = This was shortly before the cannibals agreed to kill and eat the daughter of their chief.
1	This	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	shortly	shortly	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
4	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	cannibals	cannibal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
7	agreed	agree	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	advcl	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	xcomp	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	11	cc	_	_
11	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	conj	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	daughter	daughter	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | This |  |  |  |  | shortly *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **agree** *speech: agree* | past | the cannibals |  |  |  |  |  | vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **kill** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | the cannibals *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer |
| 4 | **eat** | infinitive | the cannibals *not said here* | the daughter of cannibals's chief |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent daughter=Patient |

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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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