---
title: However, the servant girl went to the man and privately told him the… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: However, the servant girl went to the man and privately told him the truth. Who acts: servant girl. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Mbulukazi., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Mbulukazi., sentence 29

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However, the servant girl went to the man and privately told him the truth.

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**Who acts:** servant girl · **What happens:** go, tell · **To what, where:** truth, man · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Mbulukazi.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (servant 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:pg71335:17:29
# text = However, the servant girl went to the man and privately told him the truth.
1	However	however	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	servant	servant	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
6	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	to	to	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	man	man	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
11	privately	privately	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
13	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	iobj	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	truth	truth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **go** | past | the servant girl |  |  |  |  | to the man; however *property* | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to man=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | the servant girl *not said here* | the truth | man |  |  | privately *property* | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent he=Recipient truth=Topic |

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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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