---
title: She made inquiries of the neighbours, and some of them told her they… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: She made inquiries of the neighbours, and some of them told her they had heard the child crying, “I am going away with the birds.” Who acts: mother, some, inquiries, child. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of Ironside and His Sister., with its dependency tree and the pr
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/13/6/)

<!-- 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/) / [Story of Ironside and His Sister.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/13/) / 6

# Kaffir folk-lore, Story of Ironside and His Sister., sentence 6

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She made inquiries of the neighbours, and some of them told her they had heard the child crying, “I am going away with the birds.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** mother, some, inquiries, child, I · **What happens:** make, tell, hear, cry, go away, inquire · **To what, where:** inquiries, mother, child, neighbours · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (mother, some, inquiries, child), 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:pg71335:13:6
# text = She made inquiries of the neighbours, and some of them told her they had heard the child crying, “I am going away with the birds.”
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	inquiries	inquiry	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	neighbours	neighbour	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
9	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	12	nsubj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nmod	_	_
12	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
13	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	iobj	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
15	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux	_	_
16	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	12	ccomp	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	_
19	crying	cry	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	18	acl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
23	am	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
24	going	go	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	16	conj	_	_
25	away	away	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
26	with	with	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	28	det	_	_
28	birds	bird	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
30	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | past | mother | inquiries of the neighbours |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent inquiry=Product |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | some of neighbours |  | mother |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent she=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **hear** | past · perfect | inquiries *= inquiry* | the child |  |  |  |  | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer child=Stimulus |
| 4 | **cry** *speech: express* | gerund | the child *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn manner\_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **go away** *in a quote* | present · progressive | I |  |  |  |  | with the birds; away *property* | vn help-72.1-2 «NP V PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent with bird=Beneficiary |
| 6 | **inquire** |  |  | the neighbours |  |  |  |  | nom inquiry «cognition transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/13/5/)
- next →: [sentence 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/13/7/)
- ↑ back to [Story of Ironside and His Sister.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/13/)