---
title: They said: “The tail of a mbulu will seek milk,” so they dug a hole… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: They said: “The tail of a mbulu will seek milk,” so they dug a hole in the ground, put milk in it, and required every one in the village to jump over the hole. Who acts: snares, tail. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of the Girl and the Mbulu., with its dependency tree 
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Girl and the Mbulu., sentence 32

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They said: “The tail of a mbulu will seek milk,” so they dug a hole in the ground, put milk in it, and required every one in the village to jump over the hole.

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**Who acts:** snares, tail · **What happens:** say, seek, dig, put, require, jump · **To what, where:** milk, hole, ground, tail, one, village · **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 (snares, tail), 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:pg71335:16:32
# text = They said: “The tail of a mbulu will seek milk,” so they dug a hole in the ground, put milk in it, and required every one in the village to jump over the hole.
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	11	punct	_	_
4	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	tail	tail	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	mbulu	mbulu	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
10	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	11	aux	_	_
11	seek	seek	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	2	ccomp	_	_
12	milk	milk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	11	punct	_	_
15	so	so	ADV	RB	_	17	advmod	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	dug	dig	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	hole	hole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	19	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
24	put	put	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	17	advcl	_	_
25	milk	milk	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obj	_	_
26	in	in	ADP	IN	_	27	case	_	_
27	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	required	require	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
31	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	32	det	_	_
32	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obj	_	_
33	in	in	ADP	IN	_	35	case	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	village	village	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	30	obl	_	_
36	to	to	PART	TO	_	37	mark	_	_
37	jump	jump	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	advcl	_	_
38	over	over	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
39	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	40	det	_	_
40	hole	hole	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
41	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | snares *= snare* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **seek** *in a quote* | future | the tail of a mbulu | milk |  |  |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent milk=Theme |
| 3 | **dig** | past | snares *= snare* | a hole |  | the ground |  |  | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent hole=Theme in ground=Location |
| 4 | **put** | infinitive | snares *= snare* *not said here* | milk |  | tail |  |  | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent milk=Theme in it=Destination |
| 5 | **require** | past | snares *= snare* *not said here* | every one |  | the village |  |  | vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme one=Precondition |
| 6 | **jump** | to-infinitive | snares *= snare* *not said here* |  |  | the hole |  |  | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over hole=Trajectory |

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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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