---
title: “Perhaps he was, we don’t know; he is greater than all these.” — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: “Perhaps he was, we don’t know; he is greater than all these.” Who acts: Qamata. 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 150

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“Perhaps he was, we don’t know; he is greater than all these.”

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**Who acts:** Qamata · **What happens:** not be, be

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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 (Qamata), 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:pg71335:2:150
# text = “Perhaps he was, we don’t know; he is greater than all these.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	9	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Perhaps	perhaps	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
3	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	9	cop	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
6	we	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	9	nsubj	_	_
7	do	do	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	n’t	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	9	advmod	_	_
9	know	know	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	;	;	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	nsubj	_	_
12	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	13	cop	_	_
13	greater	great	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	9	parataxis	_	_
14	than	than	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	16	det:predet	_	_
16	these	this	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	13	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 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | past · do-support | Qamata |  |  |  |  | we *nsubj*; know, perhaps *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is** *in a quote* | present | Qamata |  |  |  |  | than these; great *property* | tree rules |

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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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