---
title: The mbulu said, whoever wetted any part of their body in crossing th… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: The mbulu said, whoever wetted any part of their body in crossing the river must go in and bathe. Who acts: mbulu, whoever, river. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of the Girl and the Mbulu., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/16/15/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[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/) / [Story of the Girl and the Mbulu.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/16/) / 15

# Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Girl and the Mbulu., sentence 15

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The mbulu said, whoever wetted any part of their body in crossing the river must go in and bathe.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** mbulu, whoever, river · **What happens:** say, wett, cross, go in, bathe · **To what, where:** part · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (mbulu, whoever, river), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg71335:16:15
# text = The mbulu said, whoever wetted any part of their body in crossing the river must go in and bathe.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	mbulu	mbulu	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
5	whoever	whoever	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	6	nsubj	_	_
6	wetted	wett	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
7	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	8	det	_	_
8	part	part	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	11	nmod:poss	_	_
11	body	body	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
12	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
13	crossing	cross	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj	_	_
16	must	must	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
18	in	in	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
19	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	20	cc	_	_
20	bathe	bathe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the mbulu |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **wett** | past | whoever | any part of bones's body |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **cross** | gerund | whoever *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 4 | **go in** | must | the river |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 5 | **bathe** | infinitive | the river *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/16/14/)
- next →: [sentence 16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/16/16/)
- ↑ back to [Story of the Girl and the Mbulu.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/16/)