---
title: While she was away the boy quarrelled with his sister and killed her. — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: While she was away the boy quarrelled with his sister and killed her. Who acts: woman, boy. 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 3

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While she was away the boy quarrelled with his sister and killed her.

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**Who acts:** woman, boy · **What happens:** be, quarrell, kill · **To what, where:** woman

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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, boy), 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:pg71335:16:3
# text = While she was away the boy quarrelled with his sister and killed her.
1	While	while	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	away	away	ADV	RB	_	7	advcl	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	quarrelled	quarrell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	with	with	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	sister	sister	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	killed	kill	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	conj	_	_
13	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | woman |  |  |  |  | away *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **quarrell** | past | the boy |  |  |  |  | with boy's sister | tree rules |
| 3 | **kill** | past | the boy *not said here* | woman |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=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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