---
title: Lawsuits are of frequent occurrence, and many Kaffirs display great… — Kaffir folk-lore · tree and pragmatics
description: Lawsuits are of frequent occurrence, and many Kaffirs display great ability and remarkable powers of oratory in conducting them. Who acts: Lawsuits, many Kaffirs. A sentence of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal, Introductory Chapter Regarding the Kaffirs., with its dependency tree and the pr
---

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# Kaffir folk-lore, Introductory Chapter Regarding the Kaffirs., sentence 32

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Lawsuits are of frequent occurrence, and many Kaffirs display great ability and remarkable powers of oratory in conducting them.

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**Who acts:** Lawsuits, many Kaffirs · **What happens:** be, display, conduct · **To what, where:** great ability, ability

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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 (Lawsuits, many Kaffirs), 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:pg71335:2:32
# text = Lawsuits are of frequent occurrence, and many Kaffirs display great ability and remarkable powers of oratory in conducting them.
1	Lawsuits	lawsuit	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
2	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	frequent	frequent	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	occurrence	occurrence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	10	punct	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
8	many	many	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	Kaffirs	kaffir	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nsubj	_	_
10	display	display	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	conj	_	_
11	great	great	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	ability	ability	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	obj	_	_
13	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	15	cc	_	_
14	remarkable	remarkable	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	amod	_	_
15	powers	power	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	12	conj	_	_
16	of	of	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
17	oratory	oratory	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nmod	_	_
18	in	in	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
19	conducting	conduct	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	10	advcl	_	_
20	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | Lawsuits |  |  |  |  | of frequent occurrence | tree rules |
| 2 | **display** | present | many Kaffirs | great ability and remarkable powers of oratory |  |  |  |  | vn reflexive\_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ability=Theme |
| 3 | **conduct** | gerund | many Kaffirs *not said here* | ability |  |  |  |  | vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme |

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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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