---
title: When they had finished the food they went to sleep. — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: When they had finished the food they went to sleep. Who acts: they. 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 9

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When they had finished the food they went to sleep.

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**Who acts:** they · **What happens:** finish, go, sleep · **To what, where:** food

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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 (they), 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:pg71335:18:9
# text = When they had finished the food they went to sleep.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	finished	finish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	food	food	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
7	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	8	nsubj	_	_
8	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	acl:relcl	_	_
9	to	to	PART	TO	_	10	mark	_	_
10	sleep	sleep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	8	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **finish** | past · perfect | they | the food |  |  |  |  | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality food=Eventuality |
| 2 | **go** | past | they | the food *not said here* |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **sleep** | to-infinitive | they *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn snooze-40.4-1 «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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