---
title: This superstition influences all his acts and gives a tone of seriou… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: This superstition influences all his acts and gives a tone of seriousness to his character. Who acts: superstition. 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 176

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This superstition influences all his acts and gives a tone of seriousness to his character.

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**Who acts:** superstition · **What happens:** influence, give, act, intonate · **To what, where:** acts, tone, character, seriousness

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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 (superstition), 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:pg71335:2:176
# text = This superstition influences all his acts and gives a tone of seriousness to his character.
1	This	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	2	det	_	_
2	superstition	superstition	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	influences	influence	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	6	det:predet	_	_
5	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	acts	act	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
8	gives	give	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	tone	tone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	seriousness	seriousness	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	15	nmod:poss	_	_
15	character	character	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **influence** | present | this superstition | superstition's acts |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent act=Patient |
| 2 | **give** | present | this superstition *not said here* | a tone of seriousness | superstition's character |  |  |  | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent tone=Theme to character=Recipient |
| 3 | **act** |  | superstition |  |  |  |  |  | nom act «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |
| 4 | **intonate** |  |  | seriousness |  |  |  |  | nom tone «communication transitive»: of=patient |

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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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