---
title: Ingenious as they are, the men are far from being industrious. — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: Ingenious as they are, the men are far from being industrious. Who acts: skins, men. 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 226

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Ingenious as they are, the men are far from being industrious.

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**Who acts:** skins, men · **What happens:** be · **To what, where:** Ingenious

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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 (skins, men), 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:pg71335:2:226
# text = Ingenious as they are, the men are far from being industrious.
1	Ingenious	Ingenious	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
2	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	are	be	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	nsubj	_	_
8	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	12	cop	_	_
9	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	12	advmod	_	_
10	from	from	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	being	be	AUX	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	12	cop	_	_
12	industrious	industrious	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	1	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **does** | present | skins *= skin* |  |  |  |  |  | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **is** | present | the men |  |  |  |  | far, industrious *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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