---
title: The girl said: “Just listen, and I will tell you the custom of that… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: The girl said: “Just listen, and I will tell you the custom of that village.” Who acts: 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 17

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The girl said: “Just listen, and I will tell you the custom of that village.”

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**Who acts:** girl · **What happens:** say, listen, tell · **To what, where:** custom, you · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (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:pg71335:18:17
# text = The girl said: “Just listen, and I will tell you the custom of that village.”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	girl	girl	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	7	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	Just	just	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	listen	listen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
11	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	12	aux	_	_
12	tell	tell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	conj	_	_
13	you	you	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Person=2|PronType=Prs	12	iobj	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	custom	custom	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
17	that	that	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	18	det	_	_
18	village	village	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	7	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the girl |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **listen** *in a quote* | infinitive |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **tell** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | future | the girl *= girl* | the custom of that village | you |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent you=Recipient custom=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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