---
title: He said to the boys if they would give him meat he would make his bi… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: He said to the boys if they would give him meat he would make his bird sing for them. Who acts: cannibal, boys. 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 21

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He said to the boys if they would give him meat he would make his bird sing for them.

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**Who acts:** cannibal, boys · **What happens:** say, give, make · **To what, where:** meat, cannibal, bird sing · **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 (cannibal, boys), 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:pg71335:14:21
# text = He said to the boys if they would give him meat he would make his bird sing for them.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	to	to	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	boys	boy	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
6	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
8	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
9	give	give	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
10	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	iobj	_	_
11	meat	meat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj	_	_
13	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	make	make	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	17	nmod:poss	_	_
16	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
17	sing	sing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	_
18	for	for	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | cannibal |  |  |  |  | to the boys | vn indicate-78-1 «NP V PP.recipient that S»: agent=Pivot to boy=Experiencer clause=Topic |
| 2 | **give** *a condition, not said to happen* | would | boys *= boy* | meat | cannibal |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient meat=Theme |
| 3 | **make** | would | cannibal | cannibal's bird sing |  |  |  | for boys *= boy* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP P.asset»: agent=Agent sing=Product for they=Asset |

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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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