---
title: Once upon a time a certain girl left her father’s place, and went to… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: Once upon a time a certain girl left her father’s place, and went to the village of Long Snake. Who acts: certain girl. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Long Snake., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Long Snake., sentence 1

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Once upon a time a certain girl left her father’s place, and went to the village of Long Snake.

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**Who acts:** certain girl · **What happens:** leave, go · **To what, where:** place, village

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This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Long Snake.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (certain 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:pg71335:18:1
# text = Once upon a time a certain girl left her father’s place, and went to the village of Long Snake.
1	Once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	8	advmod	_	_
2	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
8	left	leave	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
9	her	her	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	’s	's	PART	POS	_	10	case	_	_
12	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	15	punct	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
15	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	village	village	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
20	Long	Long	ADJ	NNP	Degree=Pos	18	nmod	_	_
21	Snake	Snake	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	flat	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **leave** | past | a certain girl | girl's father's place |  |  |  | once *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent place=Theme |
| 2 | **go** | past | a certain girl *not said here* |  |  | the village of Long |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to village=Initial\_Location |

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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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- ← previous: [The Story of Mbulukazi., 58](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/17/58/)
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- ↑ back to [The Story of Long Snake.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/18/)