---
title: Then the tufts of hair all answered in her voice, and the seekers be… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the tufts of hair all answered in her voice, and the seekers became confused. Who acts: tufts, seekers. 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 38

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Then the tufts of hair all answered in her voice, and the seekers became confused.

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**Who acts:** tufts, seekers · **What happens:** answer, become · **To what, where:** voice

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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 (tufts, seekers), 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:pg71335:13:38
# text = Then the tufts of hair all answered in her voice, and the seekers became confused.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	7	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	tufts	tuft	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	hair	hair	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
6	all	all	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	seekers	seeker	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
15	became	become	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
16	confused	confused	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | the tufts of hair |  |  | child's voice | then | all *property* | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **become** | past | the seekers |  |  |  |  | confused *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=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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