---
title: The little boy said: “Why do my father’s nongwes smell nice in roast… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: The little boy said: “Why do my father’s nongwes smell nice in roasting, and my mother’s do not smell nice?” Who acts: little boy, nongwes, mother ’s. 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 33

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The little boy said: “Why do my father’s nongwes smell nice in roasting, and my mother’s do not smell nice?”

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**Who acts:** little boy, nongwes, mother ’s · **What happens:** say, do, smell, roast, not smell · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (little boy, nongwes, mother ’s), 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:pg71335:19:33
# text = The little boy said: “Why do my father’s nongwes smell nice in roasting, and my mother’s do not smell nice?”
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
6	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	13	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	Why	why	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	8	advmod	_	_
8	do	do	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=2|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	advcl	_	_
9	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|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	nongwes	nongwe	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nsubj	_	_
13	smell	smell	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
14	nice	nice	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	xcomp	_	_
15	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	16	mark	_	_
16	roasting	roast	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	14	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	24	punct	_	_
18	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
19	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	20	nmod:poss	_	_
20	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	’s	'	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	24	nsubj	_	_
22	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	24	aux	_	_
23	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	24	advmod	_	_
24	smell	smell	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
25	nice	nice	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	24	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	24	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	24	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: ask* | past | the little boy |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **do** *in a quote* | present | my father's nongwes *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **smell** *in a quote* | present | my father's nongwes |  |  |  |  | nice *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |
| 4 | **roast** *in a quote* | gerund | my father's nongwes *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **not** **smell** *in a quote* | present · do-support | mother ’s |  |  |  |  | nice *property* | vn stimulus\_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus |

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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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