---
title: The chief believed that story, and so he killed a large ox and said… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: The chief believed that story, and so he killed a large ox and said the people must eat. Who acts: chief, people. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of the Cannibal’s Wonderful Bird., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Cannibal’s Wonderful Bird., sentence 17

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The chief believed that story, and so he killed a large ox and said the people must eat.

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**Who acts:** chief, people · **What happens:** believe, kill, say, eat · **To what, where:** story, large ox · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of the Cannibal’s Wonderful Bird.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (chief, people), 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:pg71335:14:17
# text = The chief believed that story, and so he killed a large ox and said the people must eat.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	chief	chief	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	believed	believe	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
5	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	so	so	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
9	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	killed	kill	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
11	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	ox	ox	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	19	nsubj	_	_
18	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
19	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	15	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **believe** | past | the chief | story |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer story=Stimulus |
| 2 | **kill** | past | chief | a large ox |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ox=Theme |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | chief *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **eat** | must | the people |  |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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