---
title: At midnight the woman woke up, and when she found the children were… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: At midnight the woman woke up, and when she found the children were gone, she took her axe and went after them. Who acts: woman, children. 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
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of the Cannibal Mother and Her Children., sentence 38

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At midnight the woman woke up, and when she found the children were gone, she took her axe and went after them.

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**Who acts:** woman, children · **What happens:** wake up, find, be, take, go · **To what, where:** axe · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (woman, children), 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:pg71335:15:38
# text = At midnight the woman woke up, and when she found the children were gone, she took her axe and went after them.
1	At	at	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	midnight	midnight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
5	woke	wake	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
6	up	up	ADP	RP	_	5	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
9	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	11	advmod	_	_
10	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	11	nsubj	_	_
11	found	find	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	advcl	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	15	nsubj	_	_
14	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	cop	_	_
15	gone	gone	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
17	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
19	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	axe	axe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obj	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	conj	_	_
23	after	after	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
24	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **wake up** | past | the woman |  |  |  | midnight |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **find** | past | woman |  |  |  |  |  | vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S\_INF»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **is** | past | the children |  |  |  |  | gone *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **take** | past | woman | woman's axe |  |  |  |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent axe=Theme |
| 5 | **go** | past | woman *not said here* |  |  |  | after man |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=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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