---
title: There was a deep valley in the way, and when she came to it she saw… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: There was a deep valley in the way, and when she came to it she saw a very beautiful bird. Who acts: deep valley, valley. 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 55

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There was a deep valley in the way, and when she came to it she saw a very beautiful bird.

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**Who acts:** deep valley, valley · **What happens:** be, come, see · **To what, where:** way, beautiful bird

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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 (deep valley, valley), 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:pg71335:15:55
# text = There was a deep valley in the way, and when she came to it she saw a very beautiful bird.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	deep	deep	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	valley	valley	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
11	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
12	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	advcl	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obl	_	_
16	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	parataxis	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	21	det	_	_
19	very	very	ADV	RB	_	20	advmod	_	_
20	beautiful	beautiful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	21	amod	_	_
21	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a deep valley in the way |  |  | there |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **come** | past | valley |  |  | way |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to it=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **see** | past | valley | a beautiful bird |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer bird=Stimulus |

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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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