---
title: A great portion of their time is spent in visiting and gossip, of wh… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: A great portion of their time is spent in visiting and gossip, of which they are exceedingly fond. Who acts: skins. 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 227

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A great portion of their time is spent in visiting and gossip, of which they are exceedingly fond.

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**Who acts:** skins · **What happens:** spend, be · **To what, where:** great portion, visiting

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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), 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:pg71335:2:227
# text = A great portion of their time is spent in visiting and gossip, of which they are exceedingly fond.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	portion	portion	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	6	nmod:poss	_	_
6	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
7	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux:pass	_	_
8	spent	spend	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	visiting	visiting	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	obl	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
12	gossip	gossip	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	19	obl	_	_
16	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	19	cop	_	_
18	exceedingly	exceedingly	ADV	RB	_	19	advmod	_	_
19	fond	fond	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **spend** | present · passive |  | a great portion of skins's time |  | visiting and gossip |  |  | vn consume-66-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Asset |
| 2 | **is** | present | skins *= skin* |  |  |  |  | which *obl*; exceedingly, fond *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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