---
title: Of this grain they were careful always to keep a good stock on hand. — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: Of this grain they were careful always to keep a good stock on hand. Who acts: species. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Introductory Chapter Regarding the Kaffirs., with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, Introductory Chapter Regarding the Kaffirs., sentence 121

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Of this grain they were careful always to keep a good stock on hand.

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**Who acts:** species · **What happens:** be, keep · **To what, where:** good stock, hand

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This is a sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Introductory Chapter Regarding the Kaffirs.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (species), 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:pg71335:2:121
# text = Of this grain they were careful always to keep a good stock on hand.
1	Of	of	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	3	det	_	_
3	grain	grain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	_
4	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	6	nsubj	_	_
5	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	careful	careful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	6	advmod	_	_
8	to	to	PART	TO	_	9	mark	_	_
9	keep	keep	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	advcl	_	_
10	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
11	good	good	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	stock	stock	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obj	_	_
13	on	on	ADP	IN	_	14	case	_	_
14	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | species |  |  |  |  | of this grain; always, careful *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **keep** | to-infinitive | species *not said here* | a good stock |  | hand |  |  | vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent stock=Theme on hand=Location |

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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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