---
title: When they came to a valley close by his home, he told his sisters-in… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: When they came to a valley close by his home, he told his sisters-in-law that they could now go back to their father. Who acts: sisters, 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.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/19/14/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Kaffir folk-lore](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/) / [The Story of Kenkebe.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/19/) / 14

# Kaffir folk-lore, The Story of Kenkebe., sentence 14

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
When they came to a valley close by his home, he told his sisters-in-law that they could now go back to their father.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** sisters, famine · **What happens:** come, tell, go back · **To what, where:** valley, sisters · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
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 (sisters, famine), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg71335:19:14
# text = When they came to a valley close by his home, he told his sisters-in-law that they could now go back to their father.
1	When	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	3	advmod	_	_
2	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
4	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	valley	valley	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	close	close	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
8	by	by	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	10	nmod:poss	_	_
10	home	home	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
12	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
13	told	tell	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	sisters	sister	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	iobj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	in	in	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	17	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	law	law	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	conj	_	_
20	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	24	mark	_	_
21	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	24	nsubj	_	_
22	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	now	now	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	24	advmod	_	_
24	go	go	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	ccomp	_	_
25	back	back	ADV	RB	_	24	advmod	_	_
26	to	to	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
27	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
28	father	father	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	24	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	13	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | past | sisters *= sister* |  |  | a valley |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to valley=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **tell** *speech: assert* | past | famine |  | famine's sisters and law |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent sister=Recipient clause=Topic |
| 3 | **go back** | could | sisters *= sister* |  |  |  | now | to sisters's father *result* | vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Patient to father=Result |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/19/13/)
- next →: [sentence 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/19/15/)
- ↑ back to [The Story of Kenkebe.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/19/)