---
title: Then they made a plan to find out if what the girl was singing was t… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: Then they made a plan to find out if what the girl was singing was the truth. Who acts: girls, girl. 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 27

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Then they made a plan to find out if what the girl was singing was the truth.

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**Who acts:** girls, girl · **What happens:** make, find out, sing, be · **To what, where:** plan, truth

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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 (girls, girl), 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:pg71335:16:27
# text = Then they made a plan to find out if what the girl was singing was the truth.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	made	make	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	plan	plan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	find	find	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	5	acl	_	_
8	out	out	ADP	RP	_	7	compound:prt	_	_
9	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	14	mark	_	_
10	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	14	obj	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj	_	_
13	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
14	singing	sing	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	7	advcl	_	_
15	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	cop	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | past | girls *= girl* | a plan |  |  | then |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset plan=Product |
| 2 | **find out** | to-infinitive | girls *= girl* *not said here* | a plan *not said here* |  |  |  |  | vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **sing** *speech: express* *a condition, not said to happen* | past · progressive | the girl |  |  |  |  | what *obj* | vn sound\_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location what=Theme |
| 4 | **is a** | past |  | the truth |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- .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.

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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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