---
title: When she was a little way off, she looked back and saw smoke coming… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: When she was a little way off, she looked back and saw smoke coming out of the hut, from which she knew that her mother had burned herself and was no longer a person under the sun. Who acts: woman, smoke. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of the Girl and the Mbulu., with
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Girl and the Mbulu., sentence 12

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When she was a little way off, she looked back and saw smoke coming out of the hut, from which she knew that her mother had burned herself and was no longer a person under the sun.

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**Who acts:** woman, smoke · **What happens:** be, look back, see, come out, know, burn · **To what, where:** smoke, hut, mother, sun., person · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of the Girl and the Mbulu.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (woman, smoke), 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:pg71335:16:12
# text = When she was a little way off, she looked back and saw smoke coming out of the hut, from which she knew that her mother had burned herself and was no longer a person under the sun.
1	When	when	SCONJ	WRB	_	7	mark	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	7	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl:unmarked	_	_
7	off	off	ADV	RB	_	10	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	10	nsubj	_	_
10	looked	look	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
11	back	back	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	saw	see	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
14	smoke	smoke	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obj	_	_
15	coming	come	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	14	acl	_	_
16	out	out	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
17	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	hut	hut	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
21	from	from	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
22	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	24	obl	_	_
23	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
24	knew	know	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	parataxis	_	_
25	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	29	mark	_	_
26	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	27	nmod:poss	_	_
27	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	nsubj:pass	_	_
28	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	aux	_	_
29	burned	burn	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	24	ccomp	_	_
30	herself	herself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	29	obl	_	_
31	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	36	cc	_	_
32	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	36	cop	_	_
33	no	no	ADV	RB	_	34	advmod	_	_
34	longer	long	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	36	advmod	_	_
35	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	36	det	_	_
36	person	person	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	conj	_	_
37	under	under	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
38	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
39	sun.	sun.	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	obl	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | woman |  |  |  |  | a little way *obl:unmarked*; off *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **look back** | past | woman |  |  |  |  |  | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
| 3 | **see** | past | woman *not said here* | smoke |  |  |  |  | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer smoke=Stimulus |
| 4 | **come out** | gerund | smoke *not said here* | the hut |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Patient hut=Result |
| 5 | **know** | past | woman |  |  |  |  | which *obl* | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 6 | **burn** | past · perfect · passive |  | woman's mother |  | the sun. |  | woman *obl* | tree rules |
| 7 | **is a** | past |  | a person |  |  |  | long *property* | tree rules |

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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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