---
title: Then a mouse told her the same thing, but still she did not believe… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: Then a mouse told her the same thing, but still she did not believe it was true. Who acts: mouse, woman. 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 6

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Then a mouse told her the same thing, but still she did not believe it was true.

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**Who acts:** mouse, woman · **What happens:** tell, not believe, be · **To what, where:** same thing, woman · **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 (mouse, woman), 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:pg71335:16:6
# text = Then a mouse told her the same thing, but still she did not believe it was true.
1	Then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	4	advmod	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	mouse	mouse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	her	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	iobj	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	thing	thing	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
10	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
11	still	still	ADV	RB	_	15	advmod	_	_
12	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	15	nsubj	_	_
13	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	15	aux	_	_
14	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	15	advmod	_	_
15	believe	believe	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	parataxis	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
17	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	cop	_	_
18	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | a mouse | the same thing | woman |  | then |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent she=Recipient thing=Topic |
| 2 | **not** **believe** | past · do-support | woman |  |  |  | still |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer |
| 3 | **is** | past | mouse |  |  |  |  | true *property* | tree rules |

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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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