--- title: When she was near them, the boy said to the girl: “My sister, sing y… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics description: When she was near them, the boy said to the girl: “My sister, sing your melodious song; perhaps when she hears it she will be sorry, and go home without hurting us.” Who acts: woman, boy, sister, your. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of the Cannibal Mother and Her --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/15/41/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Kaffir folk-lore](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/) / [The Story of the Cannibal Mother and H…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/15/) / 41 # Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of the Cannibal Mother and Her Children., sentence 41 When she was near them, the boy said to the girl: “My sister, sing your melodious song; perhaps when she hears it she will be sorry, and go home without hurting us.” **Who acts:** woman, boy, sister, your · **What happens:** be, say, sing, hear, go, hurt · **To what, where:** girl, melodious song, song, us · **Speech:** someone speaks here 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, boy, sister, your), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = book:pg71335:15:41 # text = When she was near them, the boy said to the girl: “My sister, sing your melodious song; perhaps when she hears it she will be sorry, and go home without hurting us.” 1 When when ADV WRB PronType=Int 5 advmod _ _ 2 she she PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 5 nsubj _ _ 3 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 5 cop _ _ 4 near near ADP IN _ 5 case _ _ 5 them they PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs 9 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 6 , , PUNCT , _ 5 punct _ _ 7 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 8 det _ _ 8 boy boy NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 nsubj _ _ 9 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ _ 10 to to ADP IN _ 12 case _ _ 11 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 12 det _ _ 12 girl girl NOUN NN Number=Sing 9 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 13 : : PUNCT : _ 18 punct _ _ 14 “ " PUNCT `` _ 18 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 15 My my PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 16 nmod:poss _ _ 16 sister sister NOUN NN Number=Sing 18 nsubj _ SpaceAfter=No 17 , , PUNCT , _ 16 punct _ _ 18 sing sing VERB VB VerbForm=Inf 9 conj _ _ 19 your your PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 21 nmod:poss _ _ 20 melodious melodious ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 21 amod _ _ 21 song song NOUN NN Number=Sing 18 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 22 ; ; PUNCT , _ 26 punct _ _ 23 perhaps perhaps ADV RB _ 26 advmod _ _ 24 when when ADV WRB PronType=Int 26 advmod _ _ 25 she she PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 26 nsubj _ _ 26 hears hear VERB VBZ Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin 9 conj _ _ 27 it it PRON PRP Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 26 obj _ _ 28 she she PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 31 nsubj _ _ 29 will will AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 31 aux _ _ 30 be be AUX VB VerbForm=Inf 31 cop _ _ 31 sorry sorry ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 26 parataxis _ SpaceAfter=No 32 , , PUNCT , _ 34 punct _ _ 33 and and CCONJ CC _ 34 cc _ _ 34 go go VERB VB Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin 31 parataxis _ _ 35 home home ADV RB _ 34 advmod _ _ 36 without without SCONJ IN _ 37 mark _ _ 37 hurting hurt VERB VBG Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part 34 advcl _ _ 38 us we PRON PRP Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs 37 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 39 . . PUNCT . _ 31 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 40 ” " PUNCT '' _ 26 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **is** | past | woman | | | | | near man | tree rules | | 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the boy | | the girl | | | | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V PP.recipient S-Quote»: agent=Agent to girl=Recipient | | 3 | **sing** *speech: express* *in a quote* | infinitive | My sister | your melodious song | | | | | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location song=Theme | | 4 | **hear** *in a quote* | present | woman | song | | | | perhaps *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus | | 5 | **is** *in a quote* | future | woman | | | | | sorry *property* | tree rules | | 6 | **go** *in a quote* | infinitive | | | | | | home *property* | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | | 7 | **hurt** *in a quote* | gerund | | us | | | | | vn hurt-40.8.3-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer we=Patient | | 8 | **sing** *in a quote* | | your | | | | | | nom song «communication intransitive»: poss=agent | 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. **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. - ← previous: [sentence 40](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/15/40/) - next →: [sentence 42](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/15/42/) - ↑ back to [The Story of the Cannibal Mother and Her Children.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/15/)