---
title: The cannibals came, and when they could not find the child they call… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: The cannibals came, and when they could not find the child they called her loudly by name. Who acts: 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 37

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The cannibals came, and when they could not find the child they called her loudly by name.

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**Who acts:** cannibals · **What happens:** come, not find, call · **To what, where:** child · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (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:pg71335:13:37
# text = The cannibals came, and when they could not find the child they called her loudly by name.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	cannibals	cannibal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nsubj	_	_
3	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
5	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	14	cc	_	_
6	when	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	10	mark	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
8	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
9	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	10	advmod	_	_
10	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	14	advcl	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
14	called	call	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
15	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obj	_	_
16	loudly	loudly	ADV	RB	_	14	advmod	_	_
17	by	by	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | the cannibals |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **not** **find** | could | cannibals *= cannibal* | the child |  |  |  |  | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Topic |
| 3 | **call** | past | cannibals *= cannibal* |  | child |  |  | by name; loudly *property* | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent she=Recipient |

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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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