---
title: When they met, the bird took the axe from the woman, and still sang… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: When they met, the bird took the axe from the woman, and still sang the same song. Who acts: others, bird. 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 62

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When they met, the bird took the axe from the woman, and still sang the same song.

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**Who acts:** others, bird · **What happens:** meet, take, sing · **To what, where:** axe, same song

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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 (others, bird), 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:pg71335:15:62
# text = When they met, the bird took the axe from the woman, and still sang the same song.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	met	meet	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	bird	bird	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	axe	axe	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	from	from	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	woman	woman	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	still	still	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	sang	sing	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
18	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	amod	_	_
19	song	song	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **meet** | past | others *= other* |  |  |  |  |  | vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **take** | past | the bird | the axe |  |  |  | from the woman | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial\_location»: agent=Agent axe=Theme from woman=Initial\_Location |
| 3 | **sing** *speech: express* | past | the bird *not said here* | the same song |  |  | still |  | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location song=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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