---
title: When they arrived at their father’s house, they listened outside to… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: When they arrived at their father’s house, they listened outside to find out if their mother was there. Who acts: man, mother. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of the Cannibal Mother and Her Children., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of the Cannibal Mother and Her Children., sentence 12

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When they arrived at their father’s house, they listened outside to find out if their mother was there.

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**Who acts:** man, mother · **What happens:** arrive, listen, find out, be · **To what, where:** house

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This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of the Cannibal Mother and Her Children.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (man, mother), 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:pg71335:15:12
# text = When they arrived at their father’s house, they listened outside to find out if their mother was there.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	arrived	arrive	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	advcl	_	_
4	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
5	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	’s	's	PART	POS	_	6	case	_	_
8	house	house	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
10	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	listened	listen	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
12	outside	outside	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	advcl	_	_
15	out	out	ADP	RP	_	14	compound:prt	_	_
16	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	20	mark	_	_
17	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	18	nmod:poss	_	_
18	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	nsubj	_	_
19	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	cop	_	_
20	there	there	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	14	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	11	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **arrive** | past | man |  |  | man's father's house |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **listen** | past | man |  |  |  |  | outside *property* | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **find out** | to-infinitive | man *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent |
| 4 | **is** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | man's mother |  |  |  |  | there *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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