---
title: His other wife’s children are crows, which come and eat my corn, and… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: His other wife’s children are crows, which come and eat my corn, and she laughs at me.” Who acts: children, crows, woman. 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 9

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His other wife’s children are crows, which come and eat my corn, and she laughs at me.”

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**Who acts:** children, crows, woman · **What happens:** be, come, eat, laugh · **To what, where:** crows, corn

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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 (children, crows, 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:pg71335:17:9
# text = His other wife’s children are crows, which come and eat my corn, and she laughs at me.”
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
2	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	’s	's	PART	POS	_	3	case	_	_
5	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
6	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	cop	_	_
7	crows	crow	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
9	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	nsubj	_	_
10	come	come	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	eat	eat	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	10	conj	_	_
13	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	14	nmod:poss	_	_
14	corn	corn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	18	punct	_	_
16	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
17	she	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	18	nsubj	_	_
18	laughs	laugh	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	parataxis	_	_
19	at	at	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | husband's other wife's children | crows |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **come** | present | crows |  |  |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 3 | **eat** | present | crows *not said here* | my corn |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent corn=Patient |
| 4 | **laugh** | present | woman |  |  |  |  | at me | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

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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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