---
title: She had a child, and one day, when it was playing, a square pumpkin… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: She had a child, and one day, when it was playing, a square pumpkin came out of the ground where the mbulu was buried, and tried to kill the infant. Who acts: mbulu, child, square pumpkin. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Story of the Girl and the Mbulu., with its dependency 
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/16/37/)

<!-- 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/) / 37

# Kaffir folk-lore, Story of the Girl and the Mbulu., sentence 37

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She had a child, and one day, when it was playing, a square pumpkin came out of the ground where the mbulu was buried, and tried to kill the infant.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** mbulu, child, square pumpkin · **What happens:** have, play, come out, bury, try, kill · **To what, where:** child, ground, mbulu, infant

<!-- .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, child, square pumpkin), 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:pg71335:16:37
# text = She had a child, and one day, when it was playing, a square pumpkin came out of the ground where the mbulu was buried, and tried to kill the infant.
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
7	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	8	nummod	_	_
8	day	day	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl:unmarked	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	8	punct	_	_
10	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	13	advmod	_	_
11	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	aux	_	_
13	playing	play	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	2	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
15	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	square	square	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
17	pumpkin	pumpkin	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nsubj	_	_
18	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	conj	_	_
19	out	out	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	ground	ground	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	obl	_	_
23	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Rel	27	advmod	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	mbulu	mbulu	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	27	nsubj:pass	_	_
26	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	27	aux:pass	_	_
27	buried	bury	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	22	acl:relcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
29	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	30	cc	_	_
30	tried	try	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	conj	_	_
31	to	to	PART	TO	_	32	mark	_	_
32	kill	kill	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	30	xcomp	_	_
33	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
34	infant	infant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	32	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
35	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **have** | past | mbulu | a child |  |  |  |  | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Patient |
| 2 | **play** | past · progressive | child |  |  |  | day |  | vn performance-26.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **come out** | past | a square pumpkin | the ground |  |  |  |  | vn become-109.1 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Patient ground=Result |
| 4 | **bury** | past · passive |  | the mbulu |  |  |  |  | vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme |
| 5 | **try** | past | mbulu *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn try-61.1 «NP V S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 6 | **kill** *not said to happen* | to-infinitive | mbulu *not said here* | the infant |  |  |  |  | vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent infant=Theme |

<!-- .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 36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/16/36/)
- next →: [sentence 38](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/16/38/)
- ↑ back to [Story of the Girl and the Mbulu.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/16/)