---
title: They gave the cannibal a leaky pot to carry the water in, so that he… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: They gave the cannibal a leaky pot to carry the water in, so that he was gone a long time. Who acts: men, cannibal. 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 32

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They gave the cannibal a leaky pot to carry the water in, so that he was gone a long time.

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**Who acts:** men, cannibal · **What happens:** give, carry in, be · **To what, where:** cannibal, water

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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 (men, cannibal), 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:pg71335:14:32
# text = They gave the cannibal a leaky pot to carry the water in, so that he was gone a long time.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	gave	give	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	cannibal	cannibal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	leaky	leaky	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	pot	pot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	carry	carry	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	advcl	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
12	in	in	ADP	RP	_	9	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
14	so	so	SCONJ	IN	ExtPos=SCONJ	18	mark	_	_
15	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	14	fixed	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	gone	gone	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	2	parataxis	_	_
19	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
20	long	long	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **give** | past | men *= man* | the cannibal |  |  |  | a leaky pot *obj* | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent cannibal=Recipient pot=Theme |
| 2 | **carry in** | to-infinitive | men *= man* *not said here* | the water |  |  |  |  | vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent water=Theme |
| 3 | **is** | past | cannibal |  |  |  | time | gone *property* | tree rules |

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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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