---
title: Then the mbulu took her clothes and put them on. — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: Then the mbulu took her clothes and put them on. Who acts: mbulu. 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.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Girl and the Mbulu., sentence 17

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Then the mbulu took her clothes and put them on.

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**Who acts:** mbulu · **What happens:** take, put on · **To what, where:** clothes

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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 (mbulu), 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:pg71335:16:17
# text = Then the mbulu took her clothes and put them on.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	mbulu	mbulu	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	took	take	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	clothes	clothes	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan	4	obj	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	conj	_	_
9	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	obj	_	_
10	on	on	ADP	RP	_	8	compound:prt	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **take** | past | the mbulu | mbulu's clothes |  |  | then |  | vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent clothes=Theme |
| 2 | **put on** | infinitive | the mbulu *not said here* | clothes |  |  |  |  | vn invest-13.5.4-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent they=Goal |

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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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