---
title: Her husband caught hold of her arm, and said: “Ho! if you put me to… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: Her husband caught hold of her arm, and said: “Ho! if you put me to death who will be your husband?” Who acts: husband, you, death. 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 46

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Her husband caught hold of her arm, and said: “Ho! if you put me to death who will be your husband?”

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**Who acts:** husband, you, death · **What happens:** catch, say, put, be, hold · **To what, where:** hold, Ho, husband, arm · **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 (husband, you, death), 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:pg71335:15:46
# text = Her husband caught hold of her arm, and said: “Ho! if you put me to death who will be your husband?”
1	Her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	caught	catch	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	hold	hold	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	arm	arm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
12	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	Ho	ho	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
15	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	17	mark	_	_
16	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Person=2|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	put	put	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	advcl	_	_
18	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	obj	_	_
19	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
21	who	who	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	25	nsubj	_	_
22	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	25	aux	_	_
23	be	be	AUX	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	cop	_	_
24	your	your	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Person=2|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	husband	husband	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	25	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **catch** | past | Hinazinci's husband | hold of Hinazinci's arm |  |  |  |  | vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hold=Theme |
| 2 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | Hinazinci's husband *not said here* | Ho |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent ho=Topic |
| 3 | **put** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | past | you |  | Hinazinci's husband *= husband* |  |  | to death | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent i=Goal |
| 4 | **is a** *in a quote* | future | death | your husband |  |  |  | your *nmod:poss* | tree rules |
| 5 | **hold** |  |  | Hinazinci's arm |  |  |  |  | nom hold «act transitive»: of=patient |

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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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