---
title: There was once a great famine in a certain country, and the people w… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: There was once a great famine in a certain country, and the people were obliged to eat wild plants to keep themselves alive. Who acts: great famine. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Kenkebe., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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

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There was once a great famine in a certain country, and the people were obliged to eat wild plants to keep themselves alive.

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**Who acts:** great famine · **What happens:** be, oblige, eat, keep · **To what, where:** people, wild plants, plants

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This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, The Story of Kenkebe.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (great famine), 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:pg71335:19:1
# text = There was once a great famine in a certain country, and the people were obliged to eat wild plants to keep themselves alive.
1	There	there	PRON	EX	PronType=Dem	2	expl	_	_
2	was	be	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	once	once	ADV	RB	NumForm=Word|NumType=Mult	2	advmod	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	famine	famine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nsubj	_	_
7	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
8	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	certain	certain	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	10	amod	_	_
10	country	country	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	16	nsubj	_	_
15	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	16	aux:pass	_	_
16	obliged	oblige	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	2	conj	_	_
17	to	to	PART	TO	_	18	mark	_	_
18	eat	eat	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	xcomp	_	_
19	wild	wild	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
20	plants	plant	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obj	_	_
21	to	to	PART	TO	_	22	mark	_	_
22	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	18	advcl	_	_
23	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	22	obj	_	_
24	alive	alive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	22	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past | a great famine in a certain country |  |  | there |  | once *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **oblige** | past · passive |  | the people |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: subject=Patient clause=Result |
| 3 | **eat** | to-infinitive |  | wild plants |  |  |  |  | vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent plant=Patient |
| 4 | **keep** | to-infinitive |  | plants *= plant* |  |  |  | alive *property* | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent themselves=Theme |

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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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