---
title: In a time of great danger a Kaffir will exclaim, “O Qamata, help me!… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: In a time of great danger a Kaffir will exclaim, “O Qamata, help me!” and when the danger is over he will attribute his deliverance to the same Supreme Being. Who acts: Kaffir, Qamata, danger. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Introductory Chapter Regarding the Kaffirs., with 
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, Introductory Chapter Regarding the Kaffirs., sentence 141

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In a time of great danger a Kaffir will exclaim, “O Qamata, help me!” and when the danger is over he will attribute his deliverance to the same Supreme Being.

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**Who acts:** Kaffir, Qamata, danger · **What happens:** exclaim, help, be, deliver · **To what, where:** Kaffir · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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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 (Kaffir, Qamata, danger), 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:pg71335:2:141
# text = In a time of great danger a Kaffir will exclaim, “O Qamata, help me!” and when the danger is over he will attribute his deliverance to the same Supreme Being.
1	In	in	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obl	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	danger	danger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	Kaffir	Kaffir	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	10	nsubj	_	_
9	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	10	aux	_	_
10	exclaim	exclaim	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	16	punct	_	_
12	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	O	o	INTJ	UH	_	14	discourse	_	_
14	Qamata	Qamata	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	16	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
15	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	14	punct	_	_
16	help	help	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	ccomp	_	_
17	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	16	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	16	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	16	punct	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	28	cc	_	_
21	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	28	advmod	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	23	det	_	_
23	danger	danger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	nsubj	_	_
24	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	28	cop	_	_
25	over	over	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
26	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	28	nsubj	_	_
27	will	will	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	28	aux	_	_
28	attribute	attribute	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	conj	_	_
29	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	30	nmod:poss	_	_
30	deliverance	deliverance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	_
31	to	to	ADP	IN	_	34	case	_	_
32	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	34	det	_	_
33	same	same	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	34	amod	_	_
34	Supreme	Supreme	ADJ	NNP	Degree=Pos	28	obl	_	_
35	Being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	28	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	10	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **exclaim** *speech: express* | future | a Kaffir |  |  |  | time |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V S-Quote»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **help** *in a quote* | infinitive | Qamata |  | a Kaffir *= kaffir* |  |  |  | vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent i=Beneficiary |
| 3 | **is** | present | the danger |  |  |  |  | to the same Supreme; Qamata *nsubj*; Qamata's deliverance *obj*; attribute *property* | tree rules |
| 4 | **deliver** |  | Qamata |  |  |  |  |  | nom deliverance «act transitive»: poss=agent |

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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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