---
title: Their father took them inside and put them in a dark corner, where h… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: Their father took them inside and put them in a dark corner, where he covered them with skins. Who acts: father. 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 18

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Their father took them inside and put them in a dark corner, where he covered them with skins.

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**Who acts:** father · **What happens:** take, put, cover · **To what, where:** man, dark corner

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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 (father), 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:pg71335:15:18
# text = Their father took them inside and put them in a dark corner, where he covered them with skins.
1	Their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obj	_	_
5	inside	inside	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
7	put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	conj	_	_
8	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	obj	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	dark	dark	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	corner	corner	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	16	advmod	_	_
15	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	nsubj	_	_
16	covered	cover	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	acl:relcl	_	_
17	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	skins	skin	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	obl	_	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 | **take** | past | man's father | man |  |  |  | inside *property* | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |
| 2 | **put** | infinitive | man's father *not said here* | man |  | a dark corner |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent they=Theme in corner=Destination |
| 3 | **cover** | past | father | man |  |  |  | with skins | vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent they=Destination with skin=Theme |

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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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