---
title: His mother said: “Yes, my child, this one is made of corn.” — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: His mother said: “Yes, my child, this one is made of corn.” Who acts: mother, child. 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 39

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His mother said: “Yes, my child, this one is made of corn.”

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**Who acts:** mother, child · **What happens:** say, make · **To what, where:** one · **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 (mother, child), 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:pg71335:19:39
# text = His mother said: “Yes, my child, this one is made of corn.”
1	His	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	mother	mother	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	:	_	3	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	Yes	yes	INTJ	UH	Polarity=Pos	9	discourse	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
8	my	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	child	child	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
11	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	12	det	_	_
12	one	one	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
13	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	made	make	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	acl:relcl	_	_
15	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	corn	corn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	9	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 | Kenkebe's mother |  |  |  |  | my child *ccomp* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **make** *in a quote* | present · passive | my child *not said here* | this one |  |  |  | of corn | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |

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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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